The Acceleration Multiplier
by TheZorker
Summary: An unknown event knocks the Normandy SR2 from the Mass Effect field, causing it to arrive in a new, strange part of the universe. Now new enemies - and allies - stand between Shepard and her crew.
1. Chapter 1

The Normandy has keyboards. I'll be honest. I didn't expect that. Looks like they even work, too.

My name is Derek, and I'm a technician aboard the Normandy SR2. Commander Jane Shepard has asked me to keep this log, detailing what has happened while MIA from her trial. I'm apparently the only one with writing skills.

I suppose I should mention I'm one of two people narrating this. EDI's making the other copy, not that we could stop her from listening in, anyway. When I asked why, the commander told me she felt more comfortable with a backup, after what happened at the start of this mess.

[It's not nice to read over people's shoulders, Commander.]

[Yes. It's enough prelude. Yes. I'll back edit when we find the rest to try to put it some kind of chronological order.]

[Yes. I'll delete my annotations when we're done. If you still want me to.]

[Maybe I'll try to sell it on the Citadel exchange as a work of fiction. Just kidding! Just kidding!]

* * *

><p>It began on the way from what used to be Bahak system. The first, and we pray only, time we have had to destroy a Mass Relay.<p>

Having to kill roughly three hundred thousand Batarians - even after what happened on Terra Nova station - still haunts the Commander. It'll look like small price to pay to just **stall **the Reaper invasion, but considering the official Alliance – and Council – position is to deny the existence of the Reapers [idiots], and it's no surprise that Commander Shepard was facing an official court marshal, Spectre status be damned.

We're still not sure how it happened. The ship had made the Mass Effect jump. No one had heard of anything that could effect a ship inside a Mass Effect Field. Maybe it was something the collectors had, maybe it was some other Reaper attack. As of this writing, we still do not have an answer to How We Got Here. [This begs the more important question of How We Get Back – but I hope to answer it. I have family back there]

We knew the exact point it started to happen though. The whole ship began to tremor and shake, like we were docked during an earthquake or other natural disaster. The Multicore Shielding though was holding, [I was staring at the reading,] even as some pieces began to shake loose. This went on for about five minutes.

When it stopped, we'd been dropped out of the Mass Effect Field. Joker shouted that we had some planet on the view screen, and apparently had enough momentum left from the field that we looked like we were going to prepare for immediate atmospheric re-entry.

That's when almost all our electrical systems died. We had emergency lightning, and that was it. You know what's worse than being in deep space without a thruster? Being in a planetary gravity field without a thruster.

Shepard did not have time to be grief stricken. "Get to the escape pods, everyone! Specialists! Split up! You are responsible for the people in your pod!" she shouted.

"No!" Joker screamed his reply. "I'm not losing her again!"

Pandemonium – everyone was racing down the ladders toward escape pods – the Salarian Mordin, the Asari Samara. someone shouted to get Legion, in case whatever had affected the rest of the ship had powered him off as well.

"Damnit Joker! Someone help me!" Shepard cried. Garrus, the only specialist left on the command deck, rushed forward towards the crippled pilot.

"It's no good Shepard," Garrus told her. "Joker's sealed the door."

"EDI!" she shouted. "Let me in! I've got to get Joker out. She cast her eyes for anyone left still on deck. There was exactly one person left [That was me – for the record – and I froze.] "Can you hack it open?" The sounds of the pods being fired echoed throughout the ship.

Garrus rolled his eyes. "I could shoot it open!"

We were high up, but falling fast. The ship was struggling back to power, and we were all afraid we'd missed our chance. Shepard gave up on trying to extract her pilot, and the three of us strapped ourselves in, bracing for impact.

"If you get me killed again, Joker, I'll..."

What exactly she'd do was lost in the noise of the engines powering up again. [She wouldn't admit it to me. Honestly.]

[The attempt at flattening our course pulled at my body. It was either massive Gs. Or maybe massive negative Gs. I'm an Electrician, damn it. Hate Roller-Coasters.]

The Normandy finally settled to the ground, after more shakes and protests. The power stayed on. Silence reigned for a few moments before Joker's voice came over the intercom, laughing like a madman.

Shepard ignored him. "EDI! Is there anyone in need of medical attention?"

EDI's holographic image appeared. "No, there is not. Other than Jeff, the three of you here, the only two living people are Mr. Donnelly and Ms. Daniels. There seem to be no casualties, all other crew members and specialists have evacuated."

Shepard let out a long sigh. "Well. Some good news at least," she said to nobody in particular. "What are the odds on being able to just fly back out of here?"

"Slim," came EDI's smooth female, mechanical, voice. "I don't think there's going to be any serious damage..."

"Thank you! Thank you."

"You're welcome, Jeff," EDI continued. "But we will need to run a full diagnostic on all engine and shielding systems. I see no reason to risk the ship exploding because we failed to perform proper maintenance." [Shepard shot a look in my direction. I went down to report to the engineers to see if there was anything I could do for them.]

"My next question, then," Shepard said. "Where are we?"

"I don't know," was EDI's response.

There was a lengthy pause.

"How do you not know?" Shepard asked.

There was a slight pause. "I shall assume the question rhetorical."

"It was," she replied, sighing. "We've been knocked out of a Mass Effect field onto some unknown world, with our crew scattered. At least it's Earth Class." She looked back towards EDI's hologram. "Can you scan for any likely nearby settlements, and perhaps calculate trajectories for any escape pods?"

"I was reduced to emergency power during the incident," EDI reported. "I am scanning for the most likely signs of indigenous life."

"You know I prefer the triangle formation, Garrus, but we're down to you and me. Better suit up."

They went down to the armory, Shepard taking all sorts of fancy equipment, Garrus taking both of his rifles. He glanced up at the Spectre. "Grenades."

"Pardon?" Shepard asked, momentarily distracted. Her comlink must have been damaged in the crash. They had spares, of course, plenty of them. It would make trying to find the evacuated crew one hell of a job, though. She tossed one to Garrus even as she looked up to hear his complaint in full.

"When – and why – did we stop carrying grenades? There's been times when we could have cleared out a room from full of collectors with a single well placed grenade. We really should start carrying grenades again."

"Garrus?"

"Yes, Commander?"

"Stick to sniping. You're starting to sound like Zaeed."

"Acknowledged."

Edi's hologram arrived. "I have located two likely settlements in a near area, each about five kilometers distant."

"Don't suppose you spotted a spaceport," Garrus asked. "It'd be our luck to crash on some backward world with no way to get off of it."

"Technology levels seem to be schizophrenic," EDI reported.

"Come again?" Shepard asked.

"One seems to have a reasonable amount of technology, I can detect large sources of engineered metals, buildings perhaps. The other has more life signs - people, but perhaps more clustered. I've also found fewer readings of tech."

"What do you think, Garrus? Wait here, or try to get to help?"

"Leave the ship undefended?" Garrus asked her. "Because it worked out so well the last time?"

Shepard gave him a look. He met it, his face betraying a slight grin. "Sometimes I find myself asking, what would Tali say?"

So they waited. Armaments on, waiting for who knows what to come to them from who knows where. [Shepard came down to check on us. Gabby – Ms. Daniels, I mean, thought we'd have all the supplies needed to fix the normal engines.]

When EDI alerted them to the presence of nearby lifeforms, they prepared. Garrus took a position against the wall, with Shepard standing at the airlock door, ready to duck and cover if she needed to give the sniper a clear shot.

The five that approached were proof they were off the beaten path. One of them was human, or at least human looking enough. Actually, with the heavy armor and what appeared to be insignia, he didn't look that different from Commander Shepard. If the Commander carried a cannon as long as she was tall. Backing him was a... well, it looked the size of a human, bipedal and all that. The eyes, though, looked like the so called "Sectoids" or "Greys" in the old holos, the ones that made fun of what we thought outer space was going to be like. A breathing mask covered where a human's nose and mouth would have been.

Flanking them, on the other side, was – I kid you not - a devil. A human like creature with a naturally red skin tone, small spikes jutting out from his skull. Again, heavy armor, though this one had no really apparent large weapon, just a pistol tucked into the belt.

To his side, peaking around his legs was, well, a brown cloak. A brown cloak with two glowing golden eyes. It also carried a weapon about as big as it was. Granted, this was a lot less impressive when it was 3 foot, 3 foot 6 tops. [No. I don't know what that is in meters, heights were always old English measurements.]

Between the two, another figure. Again, humanoid, with a light blue head, covered with orange markings of some kind of paint. This one stepped forward, and nodded to Shepard curtly. He spoke, and it sounded like no language neither Shepard nor Garrus had ever heard before.

The translator program did not carry every language in the known galaxy, there were simply too many. It would supposedly download necessary missing languages from the ship's computer if it found a match, but Shepard had the funny feeling this language was not going to be found. What it could not do, was learn new languages on the fly.

This would be a problem.

"Uh. Hello?" Shepard asked. "I don't suppose you any of you can understand me."

They stared at her. The middle one pointed at her with a gloved finger, then turned, and pointed with his full hand in the direction they had come.

Shepard pointed at herself, then at the blue alien, hoping that she understood the basics of what it wanted.

"Shepard," Garrus whispered over the comlink. "Are you sure that is a good idea?"

"I'm sure it's not, but I think it's the least bad idea. If they wanted to shoot, they'd shoot. Stay here" She carefully dropped to the ground. The planet was, indeed, Earth-like. They'd torn their way through a small wood before friction brought them to a stop.

The center alien – who appeared to be in charge, pointed at each one of the others in turn, chattering what sounded like orders.

The human stiffened and nodded. The devil kind of shrugged his shoulders, replying back briefly, then nodding as well. The other two were impossible to read.

The blue alien motioned to follow again, and they set off. A vehicle awaited them, a hovercar that held a floating position above the forest floor. It was indicated, and she climbed in, strapping herself into the seat. She'd rolled the Mako once to often to ever consider any vehicle truly safe. Then they were off, bound for – somewhere. Sanity, Shepard hoped.

* * *

><p>Most of the escape pods fired from the Normandy SR2 reached the surface of the planet in more comfortable ways than the Normandy itself.<p>

Most of them.

One did not, due to the misfiring electronics of the ship. It would have landed eventually, had it not gone past a station where an intrigued individual, detecting the life sign and barely repressed hatred within. This individual had it fetched by a shuttle, and tractored into the base.


	2. Chapter 2

Miranda carefully stepped out of the escape pod, then turned to help the shaking Mess Sargent Gardner out as well. She supposed she couldn't really blame the man, not everyone on board the Normandy was prepared to go toe to toe with Krogan. The other two crewmates were less actively shaky, but still nervous. It was easier for her to focus on the assistance of others. If she'd taken the time to think of everything that had just happened to her, she'd probably have lost it.

"Is everyone armed?" she asked. Since the fate of the original Normandy was well known, the escape pods were well stocked. There was some kind of food, water, small arms, and most importantly, a pack of flares. She glanced at her chronometer. She tried her comlink, but only static filled her ear. It had either been damaged in the evacuation or the weird power surge.

"All right, we'll give it five minutes, see if we can spot any other flares. If we don't see any, we'll launch our own."

She wouldn't have called it a wide open plain, but it was unsettled, and green. Local flora bore marks of grazing from unknown wildlife. If any were indigenous to the area, they'd fled when the escape pod landed. Though she could hear calls of unknown species – probably some kind of bird. The orange sky gave everything an even more alien feel.

Time ticked slowly by.

"Its... its been five minutes," Gardner stuttered, still flustered. "We should fire a flare."

"I agree," Miranda said, a slightly worried tone entering her voice. "I would have thought that we would have seen one by now. In theory, we shouldn't have landed that far spread out."

"Maybe they're waiting," Gardner suggested, cautiously. "for someone else to fire the first one. Just like we are."

Miranda mulled that. "All right. Hand me the flare pack." Taking it, she pulled a single flare from the pack, loading it into the flare gun. She took a few steps away from the other members of her escape pod. Then, pointedly looking down and away, she fired it straight into the air.

There was a hissing noise as a prelude to an explosion of multicolored light, visible even against the orange sky.

"What next?" Gardner asked.

"Wait a little longer," said Miranda, with a certain amount of false confidence. "Someone will come by. Keep a look out for an answering flare."

Again time passed, but it was only another few minutes before Miranda looked up. She could hear running, and a lot of it. "That's not good," Miranda said, alarmed. "Back in the pod!" The other three evacuees did so.

The aliens that surrounded her reminded her of Garrus. They had the same vaguely stiff looking face, but that was where she similarities ended. These had burning red eyes, and spikes that resembled tail fins over where a Turian's ears would be. None of them had face paint, and their skin was a slightly darker shade of grey.

There were also a vendible mob of them, at least three dozen – maybe more. Each one of them was holding some kind of nasty looking weapon. Shepard might have been able to take them out, but Shepard wasn't here. Her last words, that she was responsible for the people of her crew, echoed in Miranda's ears.

"We don't mean harm," she said, looking for some sort of commander. They jabbered back at her. She did not understand the words, but understood the tone. A few of them jabbed their weapons in her direction. One fired into the air, the weapon discharging what looked like highly focused laser energy. She got the point. She held out her hands, palms up. She, slowly knelt to the ground, drawing first her sub-machine gun, then her pistol, then the flare gun, placing them all on the grass in front of her. She stood slowly, clasping her hands behind her head. "One at a time, come out, put the weapons in a pile."

The aliens held their rifles out, ready to attack at a moments notice. A few of them began examining the pod, chattering in an again in an unknown tongue. They prodded both her and her companions with their weapons.

"Let's go," said Miranda. "Wherever they want us to go."

She had lost her weapon. They were prisoners of an unknown race.

She still had her biotics, of course.

* * *

><p>Shepard rode past trees, plains, plants, and more trees, before emerging in an alien city. Silvery metallic buildings glistened in the alien light. She looked around, taking it all in. People, some human, more of many different kinds of aliens she'd never seen before glanced at the pair of them before hurrying on whatever errands they had. They turned to the right, into the largest building in the area.<p>

The hovercar glided to a stop. Shepard paused, uncertain. "Garrus?" she asked quietly to the comlink. "Do you still copy me?"

"I read you," Garrus's cool voice responded.

"Good. Have EDI get a fix on my location through the comlink, just in case I need you here in a hurry," Shepard whispered again, climbing out of the hovercar, matching the alien's example.

"Acknowledged, Shepard. Call if you need me."

Her guide led her through a small maze of corridors and up stairs. He knocked politely at the door at their end of the trail. After a few moments, and more chattered alien tongue, he opened the door, and swept his hand towards it.

She entered cautiously, looking around the room. It was clearly an audience chamber, a dais with three more aliens, clearly of the same race as her blue skinned guide, was opposite her. To her right, was some sort of holo-projector, similar to whatever the Illusive Man used to contact her. It may not have been as advanced though, for only blue silhouettes of two humanoid forms were visible above it. To her left was a single silver, humanoid robot. His bright yellow eyes tracked Shepard's entrance, though didn't move otherwise.

Her guide closed the door behind her.

One of the three blue aliens stood, pointed at Shepard, and addressed a query to the projections. Both of them responded in the same language. Negatively, Shepard believed, at least if shaking their head meant the same thing to them as it did to her.

The blue alien nodded, and said something more, causing both blue projections to wink out. It then turned, addressing Shepard directly. When she shook her head, they indicated the robot. With a clank, it moved towards the center of the room.

"I am the Bee Five Tee One, protocol droid. Please reply if you understand this speech."

Shepard stared at it. Whatever language it was speaking, her earpiece could translate it, and it did so flawlessly.

"I understand you perfectly, B5," Shepard said, not allowing her surprise to effect her professionalism.

He turned, addressing his masters, then, when they had replied, turned back to Shepard. "Outsider from Outsiders," it asked. "Why have you come to Voss?"

Shepard clasped her hands behind her. "We had no intention of coming to Voss," she said, calmly. "I've never even heard of the planet before."

[Shepard? Why didn't you just state the obvious – we crashed? She told me it would have come across as insulting, something she tried to avoid if they weren't asking for it.]

After a moment to translate, the droid continued. "The three did not see your coming. This disturbs them. Please identify yourself."

"I am Lt. Commander Shepard, of the Systems Alliance. Spectre in service of the Citadel Council," Shepard told them. "Commanding Officer of the Normandy SR2."

This caused quite a debate. Shepard used to cover to whisper to Garrus. "Something's bothering me, Garrus. Check with EDI and see what language it is actually translating."

There was a brief pause. "It'll be a moment, Shepard. Some locals have decided they wanted a tour of the Normandy and decided they would not take no for an answer. The guards that were left here are seeing them off."

"Do you need help?" Shepard said, a bit too loudly.

"Scoped an... sorry. Negative, last of the hostiles are being mopped up. I'll be with you in a few minutes."  
>Over him, B5 replied, "No, why?"<p>

Shepard gave it a nervous smile and shook her head. "Sorry, just thinking to myself."

B5 turned back to the aliens. After a few moments, and another question to translate, he turned back to Shepard. "For clarity, you do not represent either the Galactic Republic or the Sith Empire. Is this correct?"

"It is, I've not heard of either."

Another minute or two ticked by as they discussed her.

"Shepard," EDI's cool voice came over the comlink. "The translation protocols are not in service. You are hearing English."

Shepard blinked in surprise.

"Also. Garrus has responded to an emergency flare, fired by one of our shuttles. One pair of the unknowns has gone with him to provide support."

"Outsider of outsiders," B5 was saying. "We understand your neutrality that matches our own. We will assist you by towing your ship to our commercial spaceport until your engines and hyperdrive can be repaired?"

"I'm sorry. Hyperdrive?"

B5 merely paused for a few seconds. "Is the translation incorrect? It propels your ship to faster than light speeds?"

"Mass Effect field," Shepard supplied. She didn't completely understand the physics behind it, but it sounded like what he meant.

B5's eyes dimmed briefly. "A close but inaccurate translation. Hyperdrive requires specific coordinates and calculations, and cannot be altered mid-flight. It also does not require the use of a mass relay to initiate."

As if she needed anything else to change. On the other hand, no mass relay _probably_ meant no reapers. Shepard bowed. "I can certainly accept any help in returning my ship to space-worthiness, and help finding my crew. Many of them ejected before the ship crash landed."

"The three will find outsiders to help you, outsider of outsiders. Rega-Le will escort you while your ship is being towed."

Shepard bowed. "If you will permit me one question, how did your robot learn to speak English?"

"I am a droid. Not a robot," B5 protested. "I have a three-sigma Turing rating. I learned it from your protocol droid."

"My..." Shepard began. "Legion," she said, interrupting herself. "My protocol droid. Can he be returned to me?"

[Why the deception? Shepard told me that she had no intention on revealing his status as an actual AI. She doubted they'd ever heard of Geth, but a lot of people seemed to have trouble with a true AI.]

"We shall. Your basic language has been disseminated along the holonet. Protocol droids among all outsiders should be able to assist in your communication into Galactic Basic."

It sounded like a good idea, at least.

She was escorted back out of the building, and into the orange light of the afternoon sun. As promised, the Geth platform the crew referred to as "Legion" was waiting for her.

"Shepard-Commander," it said in its halting mechanical voice. "We are pleased to see that you survived forced landing on this unknown planet."

"Its good to see you made it too, Legion," said Shepard, holding out a replacement comlink. "Can you account for any other members of the crew?"

"Security officer Bert," it replied, adding a few others as well.

"Well, it's a good start," she said, and filled the Geth unit on everything that had happened so far. "How did you manage to teach their droid English?" She asked. "And what other languages did you give them."

"We began with the universal language, math. Then we..." it paused. "We calculate there is an 86.4% chance, rounded up, that you would claim to not understand this explanation. Also, there is a 91.3% chance you would claim it gave you a headache. Allow it to suffice to say that we found a common machine language. With your permission, I will upload their universal trade language: 'Basic' to EDI for addition to the translator system."

"Permission granted. Can you ask Rega-Le to take us to wherever they're holding our other crew members, at least until they get the ship back here." She activated her comlink. "Garrus, report."

* * *

><p>Yeoman Chambers let out a scream almost as soon as the pod was opened. There were unidentified aliens out there, each armed with some sort of rifle, a small pack of five. One of them fired into the pod, scorching the wall of the pod above her head.<p>

It was probably a warning shot.

The code did not know the difference.

Samara burst from the pod, focusing her biotic energy to simply throw the attackers away from the pod. She followed it up with a spray of fire from her own assault rifle, forcing the alien beings to seek cover.

She could hear the sound of footsteps on leaves running towards her position, reinforcements. The footsteps were quickly covered by the sound of return fire on Samara. The energy bolts passed cleanly through her shields, striking in her armor in a painful pattern.

She blocked out the pain, aware they were now shooting to kill. Her reply was to simply lift the shooter in the air and perforate him with a tight burst of rifle fire. When he fell back to the ground, he no longer moved. "Embrace eternity!" she shouted. Then had to dive out of the way as the remaining four converged their fire upon her.

A pistol's popping noise came from her side. Yeoman Chambers had apparently recovered from her earlier fright, and was doing her best to provide cover fire. At least one of the shots hit, judging how one of them fell to the ground, clutching his leg.

From her prone position, she gave another biotic shove to one who charged forward to attack Yeoman Chambers directly.

She heard three distinct hissing sounds as two more figures rushed into the clearing. To her absolute shock, these were armed, not with conventional firearms, but what appeared to be an energy sword. And an energy staff. They engaged the Asari's three remaining assailants in melee combat.

Finally having a chance to catch her breath, she realized she didn't recognize two of the three races. The ones that attacked them initially resembled Turians, but weren't quite the same. The one that attacked her attacker with the energy sword was vaguely Asarian shaped, albeit a light purple instead of deep blue. Two long tentacles, the same color as her skin, trailed behind her head. The third, as far as she could tell, was human.

Samara rose, quickly circling the battlefield, tracking for a clear shot. The purple skinned alien made a motion with her hand, and their turian like foes, who had been attempting to withdraw, if not retreat, began moving slower, as if having to fight their own limbs. Samara didn't consider this a full retreat – they were still firing.

So she did the same, firing another tight burst on her rifle. Her target gave a scream of pain, dropping to the ground.

The human's energy staff cut through the air, and then into the fourth attacker. Whatever focused the beam of light, it was as sharp as anything Samara had ever seen. It cut through the limb, cauterizing it so no blood was lost. With a cry of pure terror and anguish, it also slumped, motionless.

The last one that stood dropped its weapon, and ran screaming, in an unknown alien language. The one the Yeoman had hit also was attempting an all out run.

With a hiss, the human extinguished her weapon, so that only the center hilt remained. The purple alien turned toward Samara, the point of the single blade held warily against her.

Samara returned her rifle to her back holster, looking warily at the two across from her, before helping Yeoman Chambers and the others out from the escape pod. At some point, Chambers had been hit. Without armor, the energy blast had burned through her uniform outright. A second, or perhaps even third degree burn was apparent, and all ready starting to blister. Chambers was in deep, agonizing pain.

The alien extinguished his own blade, the laser beam fading with another hissing noise. The human chattered excitedly at them all. She seemed to be especially excited at Samara, until she saw the Yeoman. She pointed at her, talking quickly to her companion.

The purple skinned alien walked over to her, and held out a very Asarian like hand. Chambers winced back for a moment, "Samara?" she asked.

"I do not know," Samara responded. "They do not speak any language I can understand."

Chambers reached out to take the hand, but the alien instead, moved to touch her at her shoulder. The wound began to lighten at his touch. Over the next several seconds, the blisters smoothed themselves out, the burn mark fading completely. Chambers's breathing came easier and more regular.

Samara was awestruck. That was a neat trick.

The alien stepped back, cocking his head. The human next to him pointed towards something she couldn't see, and turned back to the escape pod. The alien nodded, and swept his hand from the escape pod to the group, then cocked two fingers toward the horizon. He began jogging in that direction, glancing over his shoulder after a few seconds.

"I think he wants us to follow him," Chambers said.

"That's a good idea. Let us get what supplies we can salvage, and we will go."


	3. Chapter 3

Garrus knelt at the airlock of the Normandy, looking down the scope of his rifle. There were currently two groups of unidentified aliens on the battlefield, but only the second group had attacked on sight. He probably should have radioed Shepard over the comlink, but they'd been on them to fast. He clicked on 'Fire in the Courtyard' instead.

The red skinned humanoid had heard them first, saying something in the same unknown language. The other three stiffened, scanning the forest beyond the new clearing. A few seconds later, they were under attack.

Garrus made a mental note to advise Shepard to install some sort of point defense. The Normandy wasn't really designed for direct landings like this, but she was always asking about ways to upgrade the Normandy.

He pushed that aside, that wasn't important right now. What was important was that he had a hostile's cranium in his scope. He squeezed the trigger, the mass effected bullet sped towards its target, and impacted. The force of the bullet probably would have cracked the sucker open like an eggshell, if it wasn't being held together by a helmet. As it was though, it clearly knocked his foe down, and he wasn't getting back up.

His attention was attracted by the human, who pulled something off his belt and pitched it forward. It struck one of the hostiles, which promptly turned into a block of ice. A freezing grenade? The idea intrigued Garrus. He'd had cryo-ammo, but never a grenade. He lined up another shot at the frozen hostile, and while it quickly defrosted, it didn't do so quickly enough.

BOOM came the report from the rifle. Garrus smirked.

A chirping noise came in, dampening the music. EDI was routing a message to him from the comm system. "Something's bothering me, Garrus. Check with EDI and see what language it is actually translating." She must have meant her earpiece module. Garrus ducked down. The enemy was returning fire.

"It'll be a moment, Shepard," he replied blandly. "Some locals have decided they wanted a tour of the Normandy and decided they would not take no for an answer. The guards that were left here are seeing them off."

"Do you need help?" came Shepard's reply. Garrus had the opportunity to watch as the spiked headed demon launch itself in the air with some sort of jet pack, firing a missile into a group of attackers, knocking them all to the ground. It was a thing of beauty. It was the time for opportunity fire. He lined up his next shot and took it.

"Scoped an..." Oops. His comlink was still on. "Sorry. Negative. Last of the hostiles are being mopped up. I'll be with you in a few minutes." He gave it a few seconds to clear the channel. "EDI, can you take care of the translation question for me?"

"Affirmative, Garrus," was EDI's prompt reply. Excellent.

He had to pull up his next shot, though. The bug eyed alien had made another appearance. He was, to Garrus's surprise, a melee fighter, having flanked their enemies and gotten inside the minimum range of their energy weapons. Once inside that range, his staff did a reasonable amount of damage. Their armor seemed designed to defuse energy attacks, as well as projectiles. The blunt force trauma seemed reasonably effective.

They'd dropped enough of their foes that the rest of the squad seemed to be against ticking around. Garrus pondered firing as they retreated, but they disappeared amongst the trees. They didn't leave him with a clear shot long enough. He dropped down to the forest beneath, looking for any remaining foes, but the clearing was quiet.

He back holstered his sniper rifle. He was offered nods by the three turian sized folk. The unblinking golden eyes of the brown cloak stared up at him with unabashed curiosity. He stepped back as the thing pointed at his face, chattering excitedly.

"Utinni!" or something like that was squeaked as Garrus backed up away from grasping hands. The demon laughed, looking almost apologetic as it grabbed for the cloak.

It chittered sadly up at Garrus, who felt somewhat taken aback. What was that about?

The human looked vaguely disgusted. If the bug eyed alien had any feelings on the subject, he was keeping it hidden. It was sufficiently inturian like to be impossible to read. He heard an explosion in the distance, the five of them looked up to the sky to witness a beautiful multicolored firework display.

"Escape pod flare," Garrus said, before remembering they probably couldn't understand him. He pointed up at the smoke trail that began to drift across the sky. He began to walk towards it, before glancing back to see if they would follow. The small fellow looked excited, grabbing at the demon's armor, trying to drag it toward the smoke.

The human frowned, looking at the smoke, then at the ship.

The demon sighed at the little guy, saying something to the human. They conversed back and forth for a moment before reaching an apparent agreement. The brown cloak jumped up and down excitedly, and began to run across the jungle.

The jungle grew dense quickly as they made their way toward where the flare had gone off. The brown cloak had the lead with the demon close behind. Garrus trailed the other two, keeping an eye out for angry wildlife or hostile contact.

After about a good ten minutes fast walk, or perhaps a slow jog, the demon held up a hand. Garrus stopped, retrieving his assault rifle.

"Report, Garrus," chirped the comlink.

"I think we're approaching the pod now, Shepard. I'm detecting a number of heat signatures, though. Too many to just be the pods occupants, though."

"Are you alone?"

"Negative. Two of the locals that were guarding our ship came with me. The other two maintained guard duty."

"Copy that," Shepard replied. "I've located Legion. He's transmitting information on the local language to EDI. Hopefully, we'll be able to get the translations going soon."

"Not having to mime everything, check," Garrus replied. "Garrus out."

"See them, Blizz?" the demon asked his partner.

Garrus had to admit it, EDI worked fast.

Blizz jabbered back at his partner, pointing at Garrus. "Utinni!"

Well. Perhaps not that fast.

Garrus strode forward. It was, indeed, one of the Normandy's escape pods. Apparently, the inhabitants had taken a defensive position inside. He gave a very visible nod, pointing at the escape pod and then to myself. The small group of about three hostiles had...

Was that little guy holding a SAM launcher?

The missile fired, impacting the ground at the feet of the hostiles, and causing a much smaller explosion than he had expected.

Both demon and Turian charged forward, the demon firing with a pair of heavy energy pistols; Garrus with his assault rifle.

"Blast it, Garrus!" came the shout. "I wanted to take them on. I was still setting up"

"Sorry, Zaeed," Garrus said with a smirk. "I thought I heard Kelly's voice."

Zaeed growled something not to complimentary that Garrus chose to ignore.

He reached in to the pod, helping to haul the others out. Zaeed got his replacement comlink.

The small fellow dove into the pod chattering excitedly.

"Sorry," said the devil. "He's like that around technology, especially unfamiliar technology. He still wants to take your eyepiece apart."

"What?" Zaeed asked, looking around at Garrus in amusement.

The demon blinked at Zaeed. "Do... do you understand me?"

"What gives?" Zaeed asked. "You don't understand me?"

Garrus sighed, and offered as much as an explanation as he had, as they made their way back to the ship. He radioed ahead to Shepard.

* * *

><p>Ten pods had launched from the Normandy. Maybe half an hour or so after touching down she'd gotten confirmation on two of them.<p>

Whatever arrangements these natives – Voss, she reminded herself – were making to secure her ship were ongoing. She had been promised aid in finding the others. Rega-Le had led her to, well, Shepard would have called it a bar. It had the same low lights, the same smell of alcohol, even a similar looking bartender as the one on the Citadel.

[Is it the type of bartender that dispensed drinks, or the kind that prefers selling information? Shepard's pretending she can't read.]

It was about another ten minutes before a blue skinned human alien, with black hair and glowing red eyes, walked in. He looked around the bar for a few moments, before his eyes settled on the three of them. "You are Commander Shepard?" he asked in a calm, crisp voice.

"I am," she replied.

He cocked his head, frowning. Shepard scowled. Maybe she'd have time to stop by the ship and get an extra earpiece. "I apologize, Legion. Would you be willing to translate for me?"

"Yes, Shepard-Commander." He turned toward the alien, and identified her in the same stilted voice. "This platform is called Legion by Shepard-Commander. How are you identified?"

He turned toward the Cantina's door and waved someone over. "It is not my full name, but please, call me Jer'Do, of the Chiss Ascendency. I'm a representative of the Sith empire." His voice was smooth and cultured, even through the translator. "And please let me introduce my associate, Doctor Lokin."

Doctor Lokin was human, male, a mostly bald fellow with tufts of white hair. He was attempting to make it up by growing out his sideburns into a nicely groomed beard. He nodded sourly to the group. "Delighted," he muttered.

Right then. "I assume the Three sent you? Have any more of my crew been located?" She turned belatedly away from Legion about half way through. Legion repeated the line for the others.

The Chiss seemed to be focused on something else though. "You get translation through... an earpiece. In real time?"

The Doctor leaned on the table in front of him. "That's pretty impressive."

It was, Shepard was willing to grant that. It was also aside the point. Or maybe it wasn't. Maybe it was supposed to be Shepard's job to provide compensation. "We might be able to give you one if you can help us find our crew mates." A brief pause while Legion translated that.

[Shepard's said it is all right if I stop mentioning Legion's translation duties.]

"I was doing this as a favor for the Imperial Ambassador," he said smiling. Then added, even more smoothly, "It wouldn't be necessary, though it certainly would be appreciated."

He was quite suave. He managed to both reject the reward and ask for it at the same time. "Very good, Jer'Do, can I safely assume that you do know where one of the escape pods have landed? Where members of my crew are?"

He nodded. "A report came in detailing the crash landing of an unidentified object in the Nightmare Lands. I volunteered to help you take a look."

The Voss, Rega-Le, visibly paled. "Right. Good luck. I won't be joining you."

"How can we get there from here?" Shepard asked.

"We take an Imperial shuttle," the Chiss replied.

The imperial shuttle was, in Shepard's opinion, rather spartan. The crew chamber was basically a pair of bench (barely cushioned), with a brief gap for the door. The ride was at least smooth, as well as short, only about fifteen minutes. It was impossible for her to tell how fast she was going, though.

She took the lead at jumping out, with Jer'Do, Legion, and Dr. Lokin following in order. If this was the Nightmare Lands, Shepard decided, they really didn't look that much different than the rest of Voss. She relayed that thought to Jer'Do.

"This is the outskirts," he told her. "Gehn's Overlook, it's been called. The true Nightmare Lands are south of here," he said, pointing vaguely. "Which reminds me, how resistant is your droid to slicing?"

"I'm sorry. Slicing?" Shepard asked.

Legion replied to her directly. "A homonym, Shepard-Commander. They use 'Slicing' to mean infiltrate and perhaps repurpose computer style programing. The equivalent English would be 'Hacking'. They believe their infiltration to be more elegance than brute force. This platform has not observed slicing in action, and will not comment further. With Shepard-Commander's permission, a backup of current Geth run-times has been stored on an isolated server."

Shepard nodded, she vaguely remembered approving that just before the mission against the Collector base.

"Yes, we are," Legion told the Chiss.

The Doctor apparently caught on to the grammar involved, as he raised a single fascinated eyebrow. If the Chiss caught on, he didn't say anything.

One of the Voss approached the party, as they began to make their way to the edge of the camp they had landed in. "Excuse me," he said, looking at group as a whole. You are intending to go into the Nightmare Lands, correct?" he said.

"Indeed," said Jer'Do.

"Before you go in, Murbek Gehn would like to speak to you. The Nightmare Lands will wreak havoc on an unprepared mind."

"Murbek Gehn?" asked Dr. Lokin. The Voss pointed behind them, up the ramp. The name for Gehn's Overlook just became apparent.

"All right," grumbled Shepard. "Let's go see what he wants."

Shepard had not yet met many Voss, but Murbek Gehn gave her the feeling of an older one. He certainly looked like one of the Three she had met back in the city. He wore robes, and looked at the group through mellow, half open eyes.

"You intend to go to the Nightmare Lands," he began. Shepard worked to keep from rolling her eyes. "The Nightmare Lands drive most who enter insane. There is a dark power there, a dark power that speaks to people and usurps their minds. Imperial, Voss, Republic, Gordok. All have fallen prey. There is a ritual that can help you. A focusing crystal," he said, holding up a piece of blackened crystal. "Bring it on shrines of former members of the three. Meditate on the words there. Then, when the crystal is ready, take it to Master Kun's shrine, and defeat the evil within. The purified crystal will contain the madness."

The doctor looked nonplussed, and Jer'Do seemed skeptical.

Shepard stepped forward, bowing. "I'm grateful for the help."

He produced another two focusing crystals, giving one to each biological member of the party. Legion didn't object, and was impossible to read.

[Shepard? Why did you make time for this? Either it was a lot of mumbo jumbo, or it wasn't, and there were people out in it! Shepard wants me to note that she felt she owed it to the Voss, the culture that was helping her recover and repair her ship. They were clearly technology savvy, if a little mystical. If she could improve their relationships by following their cultural lead, she would.]

The trips to the shrines, just inside of the Nightmare Lands, were not completely uneventful. At each shrine, Shepard found herself involved in short but intense firefights with multiple aliens, though nothing she'd had real trouble with. Jer'Do searched some of them, those dressed in military uniforms and armor. He retrieved what appeared to be dog tags, explaining that he intended to return them to the commanding officers in the Imperial

Each shrine had an inscription, written in Voss, translated into 'Basic'. [When I asked what they were, Shepard just shook her head.] They focused on the words, each repeating them in their own language. When they were ready, they proceeded to the last shrine. Again, there was a quotation of the master in question.

When they were done, they were faced with, of all things, doubles of themselves made up of shadows. Even Legion was represented, to their surprise. Shepard broke out the assault rifle right away, even as Jer'Do dove for cover blasting away with an energy pistol.

Legion backed up. Shooting from the hip with a sniper rifle wasn't the most effective strategy, but the forces opposing them didn't seem to have common sense. They had no sense of self preservation, and did not even try to dodge.

Shepard, on the other hand, could feel her adrenaline pumping. She and Legion both focused their fire on Shepard's double. The commander hit the head, Legion hit the chest.

Meanwhile, the doctor and Jer'Do were both targeting the Shadow Chiss. Both of them used energy pistols. Lokin, however, seemed to be focused more on repairing the wounds on his companion. The medical probe (for lack of a better term) seemed to be capable of keeping the Chiss almost unwounded. Shepard had to admit it seemed to be more effective than medgel.

With another burst of fire, Shepard's shadow dispersed, and they moved to assisting Jer'Do. Shepard heard steps behind her, and Lokin appeared behind her. He made a brief jab at her hands. Something injected her very being, and it felt like almost pure adrenaline. A warmth coursing through her system.

What the hell was this stuff?

She refocused her mind, focusing through the rush. She laid down another pattern of assault rifle, reducing the equation to a four on two.

Legion had found something resembling cover and had lapsed into sniping. After a few more moments they dispersed the last of the shadows.

When she pulled out the crystal she was given, it was no longer black. It was apparently some kind of jade, and in fact glowed with an internal green light.

[Fine. Fine. Maybe there was something to this after all.]

"We've done what we were asked," Shepard said. "Let's go find that pod. We can turn in our crystals when we do."

Jer'Do nodded. "The Shadowlands are reasonably big, considering. From what I've heard, we'll need to be careful. Not only are there madmen in there, the wildlife is inexplicably hostile, as well."

Shepard winced. "Sounds like Tuchanka,"

Legion did not reply, also declining to translate.

When they descended into the Nightmare Lands proper, Shepard could see instantly why it was called that. It was darker, almost oppressive. Even the shine in the stones they carried seemingly lost luster.

Despite the atmosphere and Jer'Do's warning, the group crisscrossed the area without real incident. Some local animals did object to the presence, attacking without warning, but the combination of the four of them all firing upon them meant they didn't last long.

"This is taking too long," Jer'Do told her.

Shepard had to agree. She hadn't wanted to use it, but she did have a flare gun. "All right," She told them. "Let's hope we get an answering flare, and not a convergence of hostiles."

"Understood," Jer'Do said. "Going to attract as much attention as we can get."

Shepard sighed. She attracted far more than her fair share of deadpan snarkers.

She was lucky. There was an answering flare. They ran in the direction of the flare, and thankfully. There was an intact group of survivors, first and foremost...

"Tali!" Shepard exclaimed, as the glinting faceplate of the Quarian came into view.

"Tali-Creator," echoed Legion.

"Shepard!" said Tali Vas'Normandy in obvious relief. "I tried to go out, tried to lead them to safety. But..." she stuttered. "I could hear him. He's gone now, but I heard him again just outside."" She gave an audible swallow. "My father. I swear I heard him."

That actually did make Shepard look around her nervously. Tali's father, Admiral Rael'Zorah was dead, killed by reactivated heretic geth.

This place apparently really did do something to affect the mind. Tali might be a little hot headed where the geth was concerned, but she was otherwise extremely observant and logical. This was not like her.

"I've got what I need," Shepard told the others. "Let's pull out. I've got a bad feeling about this place."

Only when they were safely on a shuttle back to the capital of Voss-Ka did Shepard remember to give Tali a fresh comlink to replace her fried one.

And ask the Doctor about whatever healing/adrenaline compound she'd been injected with.

* * *

><p>Only non-affiliated ships were permitted to land directly on Voss. Those that bore markings of the Sith Empire or the Galactic Republic, had to dock instead at space stations in opposite orbits above the planet. The Voss believed, probably correctly, that it prevented large scale attacks on their capital.<p>

Jack had heard the loud clank of the tow cable attaching itself to the escape pod. She could feel the momentum shift as it jerked her along. The small window proved that she hadn't gone towards the planet. The silence of the pod was overwhelming.

The space station grew in the escape pod's small porthole. When it had finally gotten close enough, she could feel another force, a momentum that pulled the pod inside.

A shudder. A loud metal on metal thud.

She'd arrived.

Somewhere.

She waited several minutes, until she could see other forms through the porthole, and assumed it was safe to open the pod. She checked her shotgun, made sure it was loaded. When she pressed the door release, nothing happened for a moment. Then it slowly opened.

It was the sterile entrance of a space station. It reminded of her of Purgatory, the prison station she had been held in cryogenic stasis before Shepard had come to rescue her.

She did not like the memory.

Her eyes silently tracked across the floor. Ships decorated the landing area, though she could see doorways leading to other parts of the station. There was only one inhabitant.

He was human, mostly. His sunken eyes glowed red, tracking her with mingled disgust and curiosity. What she could see of his skin, covered with a brown hooded road, seemed almost yellowed and cracked. It wasn't age that had done it either. He smiled a tight, thin lipped, smile.

Jack raised her shotgun. She'd seen that look before. All of it. "Where's Shepard?" she snarled.

He pointed a finger at her, and spoke in a commanding tone that Jack could not understand a word of. But she hated being commanded by someone she hadn't met. Even Shepard had not tried that. She pointed her shot gun to the the side, and discharged it with an explosive burst. "I said, where's..."

Lightning. Lightning flew from the man's outstretched hand. It danced over her skin, and she cried out in familiar agony. Harnessing her anger, mastering the pain, she gave a shove with both her hands, reaching out with her biotics. She lifted the opposing biotic in the air, pulling him toward her, fully intending to give him both barrels.

Jack began to choke. She'd been lifted off the ground by an unseen force compressing her neck. The man had dropped to the ground, landing on his feet. After a few seconds, Jack was thrown into a corner of the room. More lightning, more pain.

At the end, Jack felt something hard hit the back of her head, and she lost consciousness.

Jack awoke in what Shepard might have called a bachelor's officer's quarters. It was bigger than a cell, if smaller than a hotel room. It contained a bed, which she currently was lying on. Her weapons were missing. Her comlink was missing, not that it had worked from the pod. Her earpiece had been carefully removed, placed on the small table next to the bed. Her clothes were still on.

The room was otherwise barren, and felt like a prison cell.

Jack's head hurt like hell. She pushed herself up, stalking to the only door out. Locked.

Jack swore again. She pounded on the door, her temper flaring. No give. She tried her biotics, sending out a shock wave, but the door held.

She paced, back and forth, growing in frustration. A few minutes after she had pounded, the door clicked open.

"Let me tell the master you are awake. Please, follow me." came the mechanical voice on the other side. It contained a tone of nervousness, but was more similar to the smooth speech of EDI than the stilted voice of the geth Legion. The copper plated robot was clearly afraid of Jack, which suited her fine.

Jack was led down a hall way to a perfectly circular room. The man who had given her such a warm welcome sat in the center, his legs crossed. He had his back to her. He spoke, his words more neutral but still not understandable.

"My master greets you, and apologizes for the... violence in his introduction," the robot stated.

"Name." stated Jack, her voice was cold.

"I am," it stopped, then restarted. "He is Darth Rael."

"Where is Commander Shepard?" Jack asked.

Darth Rael stood, as the droid spoke back to him, focusing his red eyes on Jack. His voice had not lost the harsh edge as he replied.

"My master says that if he was..."

"**She!**" Jack snapped.

"If she was in the craft that you ejected from, she was probably killed."

Jack snorted. "The collectors tried to kill her. Whole galaxy thought they'd done it. They just pissed her off. There's no way she died like that."

"Possibly," the droid said. After another bark of communication from Rael. "The master says he senses great power in you. Great untapped power. He wishes to teach you how to harness that rage, that power. To tap further into the mysteries of the Force."

Jack had been ready to tell Darth Rael exactly what he could do with his teaching offer. She'd had enough of teachers. She did not want to learn any more about. Wait. What did he say? "The force?" she asked, not quite mockingly.

In answer, lightning blasted the metal wall. The wall absorbed it, dispersing it to who knows where.

"No thanks," Jack said, snorting. "I know enough ways to cause people pain. I don't need another."

Even before she finished speaking, she heard a hissing noise. Darth Rael had pulled something from his belt, or perhaps a pocket. It looked like a simple cylinder until the red beam of light extended, causing it to resemble a sword from the old Earth holos. His eyes glowed, either from an internal light or a reflection of the ruby red 'blade'.

"My master is not willing to take no for an answer," the droid explained, quite unnecessarily.

Rage, mixed by more than a little amount of fear, poured from Jack in waves. She had escaped from Cerberus only to be trapped again. She was not nihilistic, though. She stepped back, holding her hands up, palms out. "How do I begin?"

* * *

><p>The escape pod solely inhabited by the Krogran known as Grunt had crashed into a rather large mountain range. Where was found by a group of mercenaries, with the sole occupant knocked out from the landing and wreckage. As a way to pay for their cybernetic implants, Grunt was sold to a low class smuggler who had sold them resources. He thought, in turn, he might make a profit selling an unknown sentient to the Hutts. Especially one as powerfully built as this one seemed to be.<p> 


	4. Chapter 4

Jacob was not used to being taken prisoner. He probably would have gone down fighting if it weren't for the others he'd promised to protect. He was a soldier, though. His entire career had been spent in the service of others. The lies perpetuated by the council and Alliance military after the "Geth" attack on the citadel caused him to resign. How could he serve others without being truthful to them, even if the truth was unpleasant.

The aliens, who vaguely resembled Turians, led them through an almost schizophrenic city. There were large, no, enormous anti-air batteries decorated as if they were shrines to some unknown technological god. There were houses looking like they'd been built out of... well.. preindustrial age materials.

They reached the largest building, the only one that Jacob would dare call modern, through a maze of corridors, into a prison. To his surprise and disappointment, there was all ready a group of prisoners he recognized. "Miranda," he said, swearing.

A blow to the back of the head caused Jacob to stagger, and he shut up promptly.

She looked like she'd been roughed up. Granted, they were roughing him up the same way, and she probably could take it at least as good as he did. It still upset him, though. It might have been somewhat old fashioned of him, but it was the way he felt.

They were left to stew in separate metal cages. His weapon was gone, his communication earpiece was gone. All he and Miranda had were some biotic tricks. Together, they might have been a match for either Jack or Samara in the Biotics department. Maybe.

An hour or two passed, the prison was never for a lack of cuttlebones, as Jacob had taken to calling their enemy. Always far to many to attempt an escape without weapons. Eventually, though, Jacob's attention was brought out of the doldrums by the sound of energy weapons firing.

He exchanged a worried glance with Miranda. She was alert, looking in the sounds of the approaching chaos. The guards took up defensive positions. Jacob wasn't sure what to expect. It sounded like an army.

Two people leaped into the room. One was seemed like a human, though his robes concealed most of his body. He had dark skin, and dark hair. He reached out his hand, covering the room in lightning. The set of prisoner guards simply convulsed. The other resembled a human female, if it wasn't for the white and blue painted large bat like, well, ears, and tails that flowed from them. Both carried, in lieu of real weapons, energy swords. The human, a single red blade; the alien carried a pair of green ones. They were sharp, too. A few slashes and the cuttlebones went down and stayed down.

The human looked around, as if expecting to find something, or someone. His sword extinguished with a hissing sound. When he didn't find whatever he was looking for, he began to stalk from from the room, ignoring yells from Miranda, Jacob, and the rest of the captured crew members.

The alien paused, looking at the group. Then called out to her partner in an unknown tongue.

He stopped, without turning around said something that sounded dismissive to Jacob's ears.

"All right," he muttered. "I'll get your attention." He focused his biotic energy and Pulled the human, not hard, just enough to lift his feet completely from the floor, pulling him back towards the cages.

His partner simply watched him serenely for a few seconds.

After a few seconds, he fell with a thud to the ground. He whirled at the group, staring first at Miranda, then at Jacob, clenching his his fists.

Jacob raised his own hand in the air, taking responsibility for the insult.

The man stared at him, his eyes narrowed, as the alien chattered at him again. He let out a little snort, pointing at Jacob, then at himself, then out the door.

All right. If that was the price. He gave an exaggerated nod, then a thumbs up.

The human considered him for a moment, then moved to open his cell.

Jacob moved quickly first to release the others, then to pick up the closest thing the cuttlebones had to a pistol. It wasn't as heavy as the ones he was used to, but everything else looked like a repeating assault rifle. He had just never got used to the heavier weapons.

Miranda grabbed his arm. "You going to be all right?" she asked, her blue eyes bright.

"I better be," Jacob said. "Look. They don't know you're a biotic. Get the civvies out of here. Hide somewhere near the entrance if you can. We'll meet up on the flip side." He paused. "Is that concern in your voice?" he asked, allowing himself a grin.

Miranda pushed him away. "Obviously misplaced. Good luck, Mr. Taylor."

Jacob nodded. "Good luck, Miranda."

He ran to join the impatiently waiting pair.

They worked their way slowly, methodically through the waves of cuttlebones that stood against them. Jacob would initiate with the energy pistol, then duck behind cover, forcing them to get close. When they got close, the human would wield more lightning, frying everything in front of him. Finally, the energy swords they used proved effective at polishing the remaining resistance. They fought to the last man, in any event.

Jacob was used to following orders, and he didn't need to understand exactly what was being barked out at him, he got the gist of it. He kept going, deeper into this fortress. Palace, perhaps.

Another room, this one had a generator. A generator to power the insanely large defenses outside. It fit the idea of what a small strike force could accomplish. With the defenses powered down, an air attack could be launched at one's leisure.

Of course, the stiffest resistance was stationed here. It always seemed to work that way. He supposed it made a bit of sense, just in case there was more than one team taking more than one route through the facility – they all had to end up here. Still, it felt stereotypical. There was even the stereotypical banter going between his two rescuers and the cuttlebone.

He had a feeling he knew how it was going to turn out, so he got into cover. He would be ready when the shooting started.

And it did start. The human leaped to the attack, denying the cuttlebone opposing him the thing every assault rifle wielding bad guy needs. Space to aim and shoot.

The shock wave that happened afterward nearly took Jacob's ears off. Human, Alien, and cuttlebone were blown in different directions. Hell, Jacob had been hiding behind some kind of support and still felt the blast.

To his not-surprise, lightning filled the air. "A bit of one note pony, really," Jacob muttered. Two notes, he corrected himself. Lightning and energy swords. The sounds of rapid energy firing through the air, more of a pew than the burst of a mass effect inspired rifle.

A piece of metal went flying through the air, and he heard the familiar sound of a grenade exploding at the door, and the scream of a person being caught in a fiery blast. He looked up and saw that the human girl had been actually on fire. Incendiaries were a sad but true fact of warfare. Nothing was as good as causing as much pain as quickly as fire.

It was time to get a bit more direct. Jacob focused his mind again. Mental focus came into a tangible barrier, and he stepped in to the line of fire. He was far enough to be able to dodge any heavy projectiles, and the energy fire was eaten up by the barrier. He took dead aim with his pistol and fired. Pop, Pop, Pop, Pop.

Four direct hits, each of them staggering the cuttlebone. He got back into cover before his newly claimed pistol overheated and the energy rifle overloaded his barrier. Granted, by this time, the lightning slinger and his alien friend were in for round two of swordplay.

He'd expected the man to cry for mercy, cry for back up, or at least cry in pain. He simply kept fighting, withstanding more punishment than anyone short of the Commander. When he finally had enough, he simply slumped over, completely dead.

The alien rifled briefly through the pockets of the fallen cuttlebone, withdrawing some trinket or other. Then he reached into his own robes, and took out something that he affixed to the large generator.

No prize for guessing what was about to happen. When they began to run, Jacob was right behind them. Down the corridor, up the stairs, past the prison, towards the light of the local sun. Miranda saw them on the way, figured that if Jacob was running it was best to keep up.

"GO! GO!" she shouted.

They got. About a dozen people poured from the building into the sunlight and into the large city. They heard an explosion behind them.

It was only on the way back that the horrific thought occurred to Jacob. What if they'd been left in that prison. Would they really have been left to die?

* * *

><p>It had been twenty four hours since they'd crashed on Voss, and most of the specialists and almost all the noncombatant crew had been found. Alive. Shepard was, quite frankly, amazed. This was not some kidnapping that she could race to solve. She trusted the Illusive Man about as far as Tali could throw him, but she had to concede, he made a good ship.<p>

Samara was still missing, as was both Jack and Grunt. So was about three crew members, including Kelly.

Her ship had been towed, repairs has been finished.

There had to be a catch. She just hadn't cottoned on to what, exactly, that catch was going to be.

She'd spent her spare time in concert with Legion trying to pick up the language. 'Galactic basic' seemed to be similar in construction to the language she knew as galactic trade, but the words themselves were completely different.

Shepard had grown up in a time where the interesting choice was to study an alien language, and not just a foreign one. That didn't make it easier to do it again, not really. Still, she didn't have much else to do while waiting for the next specialist to be located.

Mordin wandered into the mess. "Ah, Shepard. There you are," he told her.

"Mordin," she replied. She knew the Salarian had been savagely devouring Voss culture almost before he had gotten back on board. His disciplines carried a wide range of interests, but his favorite was xeno-biology. "Normally, I have to go looking for you..."

"I know, Shepard," the fast talking Salarian said. "Important. Had to share. The Force."

Shepard frowned. "Isn't that simply..."

"Not math," Mordin said, even more quickly "Is philosophical. Magical."

"Magical?" Shepard asked, blankly.

Mordin waved his hand, dismissing the question."Sufficiently advanced biotics. Indistinguishable." He frowned. "Not important. The importance is of it in local cultures, not just Voss. Suggest that The Force is part of life. IS life. That it can be manipulated. Bonds between biologicals, can be pulled, pushed, or manipulated in other ways."

"Like the two that Jacob encountered," Shepard said. "The one threw lightning, he told me."

"Yes. Belief in Force split into two halves. Jedi: 'Light', pacifistic, emotionally repressed. Sith: 'Dark', aggressive, focused on emotions, negative ones. What is achievable with Force not necessarily related."

"All right, I follow that much." Shepard said. "Where do the Voss come in?" she asked.

"Neither. Voss belief Force grants prophecies. Visions."

"That's why they were so upset that they didn't see me coming," Shepard said, slowly.

"Correct!" Mordin said, then snorted. "Surprises good for people. Growing dependent on perfect vision is stagnation."

Shepard blinked. "I'm sorry. Run that by me again?"

"Easier outcomes," Mordin said. "Continually following safer path. Missed opportunity for experimentation, competition. Not forced to adapt. Stagnation. If some games are not lost, how do you know to correctly adapt for risks?"

"I'm going to have to take some time to think about that," Shepard said.

"Good. Thinking good for progress. Also: no mass effect fields. Technology progressed differently. Instead, lasers. Focusing crystals increase initial power. Still obey square law, no cure for physics. Result: Battles fought at close range. Interceptors create additional firepower."

"Is this something we could study for fighting the reapers?"

"Possible. Focusing crystals new. If sufficient quantities obtained, could provide planetary point defense. Would take some time."

"Time is something we don't have much of," Shepard grumbled. "Still, interesting to know. Thank you Mordin."  
>Mordin nodded, turning to the door. "No problem Shepard. Thought you should know. Researching cross race procreation. Special request."<p>

Shepard stared at Mordin as he left.

What?

[How?]

[No, Commander. I promise not to let that become public knowledge.]

Shepard continued to stare at the door a for a few minutes, before EDI's voice broke through her stunned silence. "Commander Shepard?" she asked, perhaps for the second time.

"I'm sorry, EDI. What is it?" she asked.

"Samara's been located, she's outside the ship. The remainder of the non-specialist crew is with her. Also, Tali wanted you to know that she's finished removing the com system from some of the extra translators in the earpieces. She's seeing if she has the resources on board to make more."

That was good. It'd let her keep her promise to Jer'do. "I'll go get them. Thank you, EDI."

Samara, Kelly, and a few others were waiting for Shepard to emerge. Never having been one to hide her emotions, Kelly flung herself at the commander. Shepard took it in stride, embracing her for just a moment, before gently pushing her away to stand on her own two feet.

"Glad to see you are safe, all of you," She looked up at Samara. "Thank you."

"It may have gone worse if it wasn't for timely assistance," Samara said. "Please. Let me introduce the Jedi Knight Nixim, and Nadia Grell, his padawan. Squire, I believe, would be the meaningful translation."

Kelly rubbed at shoulder through a burn hole on her uniform. "It was incredible, Shepard! He can heal with a touch! I didn't know that was possible with biotics."

Shepard looked uneasy. It wasn't possible, as far as she knew.

"Sir Nixim has invited me to Coruscant. He thinks I would do well expanding my abilities, and I seek to learn."

Shepard opened her mouth, though whether to congratulate or object, she wasn't quite sure.

"I'm accepting the offer. My promise to you ended when we destroyed the collector base. I thought I would depart when we reached the Citadel, so I could return to Asari space. From what I have learned, the Jedi code resembles the code of the Justicar, and I am required to learn more about it."

Shepard looked at the Asari for a long time, remembering her using similar phrases when they'd met. It wouldn't have been worth arguing, and she wasn't sure she needed to. She reached into her pocket, and retrieved a comlink for Samara, then adding a pair of link-less translator earpieces to the pile in Samara's hand. "You'll always have a place on the Normandy, Samara," Shepard told her. "These earpieces are set to translate into 'galactic basic' from Asari, Turian, English, and Salarian. There's no comlink, so there'll be no way to change the languages. It should be more effective than one of their droids, though."

Samara smiled. "We should try them," she told Shepard giving them immediately to her newfound companions. Shepard raised an eyebrow. Did the alien have ears to use it with? It apparently did, beneath the head-tails, the earpiece disappearing under it.

"Can you understand me?" Samara asked, still smiling.

"I can," Nixim said. His voice was calm, deep. "Amazing piece of technology."

Shepard nodded. She had a brief image of having brought some kind of technological revolution to this part of the galaxy. She might have been able to make a profit, but felt just being able to understand the natives – and be understood – was profit enough. Besides. She owed them for returning her crew safely. If Samara chose to go with them, that was her choice. "What will this training entail?" Shepard asked.

"To a certain extent, it is a mystery. Not just to me, but to the Jedi as well."

"It is clear that she has some gift with the force," Nixim said. "From what she told us of the Asari code, there is an interesting amount of overlap." He paused for a moment, then recited from memory, "There is no emotion, there is peace. There is no ignorance, there is knowledge. There is no passion, there is serenity. There is no chaos, there is harmony. There is no death, there is the force."

Shepard had to admit, that did sound a lot like Samara.

"Part of the Justicar code," Samara said, "Is to continue to improve ourselves. I accept that I am going into this blindly. I believe it to be worthwhile. Before I go, however, I wished to make sure everyone was safe."

"We've found all the ship's crew," Shepard told her. "Only two missing now are Jack and Grunt." Shepard's mouth twitched upward. "I suppose I can't be too surprised that nobody chose to evacuate with them. I'm not sure how to find them though, if the Voss have not."

Samara frowned.

"I'm surprised the Voss have not had visions of you finding them," Nadia said quietly.

"If they have, they've not shared them," said Shepard.

Naxim spread his hands out apologetically. "I wish I could do something to help."

"It's all right," Shepard said. "I'm sure something will come up." She reached out her hand to the Asari. "Good luck, Samara." She held out her hand.

Samara shook it. "Good luck Shepard. Fare well. Though," she frowned. "I do not believe this is goodbye yet. You are too much of a trouble magnet for me to expect us to not cross paths again."

Trouble, at least, a close facsimile to trouble, came in the form of the next visitor. He arrived as the sun was beginning to set on Voss. Shepard recognized him. He was one of the ones who helped defend the Normandy while she was meeting with the three. The bug eyed alien was with him, as was a protocol droid.

"Greetings, Commander Shepard," said the human, as she walked with Tali out from the ship. Apparently, the knowledge that she could understand, if not speak, Basic has gotten out. "My commanding officer, General Garza has a proposition for you."

"I'm listening," she said.

The droid translated.

Tali turned toward the droid, staring in fascination. "Virtual intelligence," Shepard told her. "Apparently locked down by rather rigid programming."

"It's come to our attention that your ship doesn't currently have a way to enter Hyperspace. We are willing to provide you with a Hyperdrive Motivator, and other pieces you will need to fix this, in return for a favor."

"Shepard," said Tali excitedly. "This could be the chance you've been looking for! Technology that hasn't been parceled out by the Reapers!"

Shepard nodded. "What favor is this that you need?" she asked.

He looked around the spaceport. There was a scattering of people watching the unfamiliar ship with its unfamiliar aliens. Shepard got the idea. "We can speak privately on board the Normandy."

He looked somewhat nervous as his droid translated this idea. "I'm sorry. Reapers?" he asked.

"It's a long story, one that I am not sure is relevant to our current situation."

The human didn't look settled by this description. Frankly, neither was Shepard. Legion said records here went back much further than the Protheans, but this part of the universe had their own galaxy wide troubles. Still...

"Come on," Shepard said. "I'll get you a drink, and you'll tell me what you want."

"I don't like it," Shepard said, after the drink. "I don't honestly want to get involved in a galaxy's civil war. This feels awfully close to picking sides."

Daren, the trooper, nodded. "I can appreciate that. General Garza was worried the Empire might make a similar offer, and wanted to beat them to the punch. She did settle your repair fee with the Voss, as a matter of good faith, of course."

[That's blackmail, Shepard, and you know it!]

[Fine. I'll calm down. That's why we're going to... sorry.]

"Don't think I don't appreciate it," Shepard said. "But you're not going to intimidate me like that. You paint this as a recovery operation of your own destroyed ships. I can support that. You want me to attack Imperials, your enemies, to keep them from reverse engineering your technology. I don't know if.." she trailed off.

"How about this. We hire you as an... independent contractor. Anything you can recover, we'll pay you for. We get our tech back, you don't feel obligated to play mercenary. When you're shot at, of course, you may shoot back. Like a privateer."

Shepard mulled it. Tali was right. The technology they were offering her, while maybe standard in this universe, could be invaluable in their own. And... maybe she could pick up things along the way. There was more to it, as well. There had to be. The Alliance wouldn't have hired Cerberus, or any mercenary gang, to do this kind of clean up work.

To a foreign military, Shepard was a loose end. Militaries hated loose ends. She knew this from experience.

"Why?" she asked.

"General Garza wants to free up troops to send to Corellia. She considers Hoth to be a side objective – at best. If you can help get the job done there..."

Shepard wasn't buying it. At least, not completely. The catch had a catch, and she had better figure it out. On the other had, it was the best thing she had going.

"All right, Major. We have a deal. Where did you say this place was called again?"

"Hoth," he replied. "We can offer quarters for you in the Alliance embassy, and for your crew in local cantinas. That way, we can start installing the hyperdrive systems immediately"

The Gand added, "Yuun was stationed on Hoth for a long time. Good people there."

"All right, all right," Shepard told them both, grinning. "Let me round up the crew."


	5. Chapter 5

[Commander, I promised no annotations during the back-edits. But... why is Dr. Chakwas giving this report instead of Mordin?]

[About 50 words a minute, why? Oh. Right, right. No. I probably couldn't. Sorry, Doctor, go ahead.]

Dr. Chakwas walked with Dr. Solus into the area the Voss called as their hospital. Alliance Continuing Medical Education required, among other things, how to care for allies, such as Turians with broken bones, or a Salarian with head trauma. Other than Mordin, though, the only race she recognized was humans. Quite frankly, the number of near-humans here spoke a great deal for the theory of convergent evolution.

Mordin would probably give her an earful on that idea later.

Shepard had volunteered them to help out as a kind of a returned favor to the Voss, for helping her to get back her crew and ship back together. They still had two missing specialists, but as they were approaching the seventy-two hour mark, it was getting grim.

Since she could understand, but not be understood, she had resorted to playing internist and gopher for the local doctors and medics. At least it was an interesting experience. She had a chance to learn all about the local races. They may not have been natives, but when two separate galactic civilizations were vying for the alliance of a single planet, you got a lot of donated mercenaries.

She gathered a full scale assault had taken place against the other race on the planet, the Gormaks

There were a few Twi'leks, who had the twin head-tails, 'lekku'. She had a guess to where the name came from. One of the doctors muttered something admirable about one of the female ones. She supposed she was glad that there wasn't any Asari present.

There were the Zabraks. The ones that resembled Devils from Christianity. At least Gunnery Sargent Williams wasn't here to see them. She had opportunity to meet the Bounty Hunter Omusal who had worked with Garrus on one of the recovery operations.

Blizz, the Jawa, was standing over in one corner. His glowing eyes focused on Omusal, but wasn't otherwise there for medical attention. Kind of disappointing really, she was somewhat curious what was under the hood.

There was also a couple of Chiss, which looked almost like a mix of an Asari and a human. Complete with a superior personality, though she wasn't sure where the red eyes would have come from. Perhaps they saw lower in the spectrum than most others.

A Cathar, a Lt. Jorgen, was apparently a friend of the soldier who'd hired Shepard. The Cathar resembled a great cat, so much that it had a light lair of fur on his body, as well as pointed ears. He was also overly athletic, he reminded her somewhat of a feline Jacob. Dr. Chakwas was going to have to be careful about how Kelly found about this one.

The last, and perhaps least human, was the Gand. The Gand wore a mouth breather, suggesting he did not breath oxygen. He had no hair, and his head showed signs of segmentation, like an insect. His basic must have been barely serviceable, as her earpiece had trouble, often mistranslating words. She didn't really think that his barge needed shampoo, anyway.

Granted, the Salarian was attracting his own share of attention. Apparently there was nothing even resembling Salarians in this particular galaxy. Quite frankly, Mordin was unlike any other individual she'd ever encountered anyway.

As far as the medical supplies went, Kolto seemed to have a similar effect as medi-gel. It wasn't apparently didn't quite the amount of anesthetic as medi-gel, but instead provided a a shot of adrenaline. She'd managed to secure some of it. Perhaps Mordin would be able to use it to improve their own medical supplies.

* * *

><p>It was with a heavy heart, and no small amount of apprehension that Commander Shepard ordered a liftoff from Voss. At 72 hours, Grunt and Jack were officially MIA. Samara had left outright, but at least the new holonet receivers would allow them to contact through Alliance frequency.<p>

"You're sure this thing won't blow up on us, EDI?" she asked. She would have felt a lot safer if she had been able to do a short jump first, but the Normandy really wouldn't fly well without any crew members aboard. She'd left it without specialists once. She wasn't doing that again.

"The Engineering and some of the components are completely unlike anything I have seen, Shepard. It could be activated to get us to a 'Hyperspeed'," she replied. There was a pause. "It could also blow us to Bermuda."

Joker rolled his eyes. "Really? A 'Once and Future King' reference?" Joker glanced at Shepard. "Sue me. I was subjected to it in high school English."

"That was an explained joke," EDI noted.

"Do you at least understand the inputs that need to be put in?" Shepard asked.

Joker nodded. "That part I get, at least. Just like Mass Effect jumps, straight lines only. Slight miscalculations could send us off into dark space, and I'd rather not think about that. Anyway. We've downloaded astrogen maps. You'll see them on the command station."

Shepard nodded. "All right, then, Joker. Let's set a course for Hoth."

"You'll want to hold on tight, I think. Probably going to be a bumpy ride."

Shepard nodded, and walked down to the 'perch'. It wasn't as elevated as it had been on the original Normandy, but it still gave her a pretty good view of the command area. She grabbed the railing with both hands.

"Course is locked in, ready to jump on your mark," came Joker's voice over the loudspeaker.

"Nothing for it, Joker. Let's go."

The ship's new engine system rumbled to life in brief protest. There was a feeling of acceleration as the ship throttled forward then... nothing.

"That was somewhat anticlimactic," Shepard muttered. "What's our ETA?" she asked more openly. "Forget it. I'm going to get some shuteye in the loft. Wake me when we're about there, and engage the stealth system as soon as we arrive in system."

"Copy that, Commander," Joker said.

* * *

><p>At some point, during this time, another ship with a mass effect drive would land on Voss. One from outside Citadel space.<p>

* * *

><p>On the other side of a too brief nap, Shepard was back on the command deck of the Normandy. Hoth's scanned image visible from the Perch. "That's one frozen ice ball," she said, reading over EDI's scanned estimates. "Reminds me of Noveria," she said, distastefully.<p>

"There's two space stations in orbit around it," EDI informed her. "Neither seems to have located us through the stealth system. I have located nothing resembling a landing beacon."

"There's probably an Imperial one and a Republic one," Shepard replied. "Let's figure out which is which before making our presence known."

"Acknowledged. Scanning the frequencies given to us by the Republic." A few minutes went by. "Location confirmed, setting impulse course."

"EDI? If you can you patch me through to the station?"

"Affirmative."

"This is Commander Shepard of the Normandy, contacting Hoth Orbital Base." Always good to start with identification.

There was a notable pause in the comm traffic. A few minute pause. Shepard imagined there was confusion about where the Normandy was at the moment. Those involved were probably using terms that one did not casually broadcast on an open comm channel. "This is Hoth Orbital Base. Where are you Normandy?"

Shepard briefly considered answering with: "Consider looking out the window." But instead said, "We are in the Hoth System. Joker, disengage the stealth system."

Another minute pause. "Copy that, Normandy. We have you on our screen now. Transmitting approach vector."

"Appreciated, Hoth Base. Turning you over to our pilot." Good to know that the stealth systems worked as well here as they did back home.

Hoth Orbital Base wasn't as big as some of the space stations Shepard and her crew had visited. Granted, the Citadel might have been larger than some planets she'd visited, but still. It was somewhat smaller than Purgatory, by her estimation, and didn't have near the crew.

She was advised to remain in the airlock until cleared that the area had been pressurized. Not exactly uncommon knowledge, but it was nice of them to be thorough. She was met outside the Normandy by a human in a republic military uniform, not unlike Major Daren's. He identified himself as Captain Valon.

"Permission to board?" he asked. "I'd like the chance to address any of your team who might be traveling to the surface and, to be frank, accommodations on a Republic Prison Cruiser is better than what we have here."

That wasn't promising. Direct, and she liked direct, but not promising. She nodded, jerking a thumb in the direction of the station. Then she held out her hand with a translation earpiece. He smiled, took it, and walked in.

"EDI?" she asked over the comm channel, as she led their guest to the briefing room. "Please advise the specialists to report for a briefing?"

Nine people of various races walked into the briefing room and sat down.

Quite frankly, Shepard didn't know what the briefing was needed for. It wasn't anything, really, she hadn't heard – or guessed. There was no room for large ships to lands on Hoth, so most docked here at the station, and a shuttle would take them down them to the surface.

It was cold on Hoth. EDI classified it as a borderline Level 2 freezing threat during the day, and an a borderline level 3 freezing threat at night. It probably wouldn't cause her armor to freeze up, but it was close. She'd have to keep an eye on it. Most of the semi-permanent structures used by the Republic were underground.

They were to retrieve any intact computers, droids, and/or warheads they could salvage. There were two main competing groups. The first were, of course, the Sith Imperials. They had their own salvage operations. According to the Treaty of Coruscant, they were supposedly to not attack each other. This hardly stopped the small skirmishes, of course. The other group was a band of pirates called the White Maw. They would reportedly shoot on sight, and could be eliminated without a second thought. As much as Shepard eliminated any sentient without a second thought, anyway.

She was also advised to be careful of Wampas. These large furry beasts could dismember people without a second thought, but preferred (apparently) to consume live – warm – meat. Yuck. They also were known to blend in remarkably well with piles of snow, and preferred to ambush their prey. Tauntauns were the other major indigenous life. EDI described them as a cross between an ostrich and a camel, prepared for cold weather, with standard herbivore tendencies.

"I'd recommend a three or four person team," Captain Valon told Shepard. "If you're not one yourself, a tech specialist and then one or two others. The shuttle runs pretty regularly if you ever need someone specific." He glanced at the assembled specialists. "Who are you going to take with you?"

Eight hands shot into the air to volunteer.

Mordin looked unabashed. "Doctorate in xenobiology, not astrophysics. More valuable here. Working on medi-gel upgrade with Dr. Chakwas. Plenty of others."

"All right," Shepard said, allowing herself a quick grin and nod at Doctor Solus.

She pointed at Tali'Zoras Vas Normandy. "Tali, you're with me. Legion, I've an assignment for you later." She looked at the remaining seven, and suddenly realized who the seventh was. She pushed that aside at the moment. She wanted someone good with mid-range weaponry and biotics to counterbalance the team."Miranda, gear up." She glanced at the Captain. "It's going to take us a bit for us to get ready. Garrus can see you out."

The Captain nodded. "I can understand that. We'll have a shuttle waiting as soon as you're ready." He stood. Garrus stood, walking behind the human on his way to the airlock.

She turned to the uninvited member in the briefing. "Kelly? What are you doing in here?"

Kelly swallowed, her face turning beet red, and mumbled something.

"Speak up, Kelly. I'm not angry, but I need to know what you're doing in here."

"I need..." she sputtered, swallowed, started again. "I need to go. Help." Her face was beet red, and her voice so low Shepard actually had to strain to hear. Having finished that first part, Kelly raced ahead of Shepard's shocked thoughts. "I know I don't have your military training, like Jacob does, I don't have natural biotic powers like Samara or Jack, I'm not a tech genius like Tali or Ms. Gato... but..." she took a breath, "but I need to learn, I need to learn how to fight."

Shepard gave Kelly a moment to calm down, but she really didn't. Her breathing was fast, her face was still red. She did meet Shepard's eyes. They had a haunted, glassed over look. She remembered talking to her after rescuing her from the collector's base. She said she was back to being the old Kelly.

Apparently that wasn't true.

"Kelly," she began. "You do perfectly well as our psychological counselor, I've come to rely on your assessments of our squad. You don't want..."

"No," she interrupted, surprising Shepard again. "No. I don't want it. I need it. I have to do something. I see those faces... the colonists... they're in my nightmares." She stopped, rubbed her eyes, trying to erase her memories. "The screaming. I couldn't hear them. I can see them. Still see them. The Reapers won't be fought with words, Shepard."

She opened her mouth to continue, but this time Shepard interrupted her. She reached out, putting her hands on Kelly's shoulders, felt the burned hole in the fabric, and looked the Yeoman in the eyes. "Look at me, Kelly," she said.

Kelly fell silent, and did so, She stared at Shepard, but did not say anything.

Shepard gave Kelly's shoulders a squeeze. "Above all, do not blame yourself. You were not responsible for anyone being taken by the collectors. Blame me for leaving the ship unprotected. I deserve it. Do you understand me?"

Kelly nodded quietly.

"Wanting to defend yourself is admirable. I would be more then happy to teach you to shoot."

"Jacob's been doing that. He's a good person."

"Kasumi certainly thinks so."

Kelly blushed.

Satisfied that Kelly wasn't about to fall apart, she stepped back. "What's Jacob been teaching you?" Shepard asked. "Pistols?" she asked. When Kelly nodded, she asked, "Anything else? A side arm has reasonable short range punch, but if someone has a longer range weapon you can find yourself pinned down and flanked.

Kelly's shoulders slumped a bit. Her eyes began to plead with Shepard.

"Kelly, I understand your motives, but you're not ready for a real firefight. If you're willing though, we can work on it. Let's find Jacob."

"Attention: Shepard-Commander. This platform requests specific use of CPU cycles."

"Ah, right. Sorry, Legion. Please log on to the local extranet. See what you can find for local technologies. Specifically research the crystals they use to focus their blaster type weapons, and where to obtain them. Pass anything useful on to Mordin. If you can figure out what got us here..." she left the thought unfinished. Nobody on the Normandy had any real ideas.

"Acknowledged, Shepard-Commander. Will facilitate data acquirement." He headed out down towards his 'quarters' in the cargo bay. Kelly and Shepard made the turn instead to the armory where Jacob was cleaning his shotgun."

"Commander," Jacob said, warmly. "How can I help you?"

"I understand you've been teaching Kelly how to shoot," Shepard began.

Jacob was unabashed. "A lot of crew members have asked for some basic shooting courses after coming back from the Omega-4 mission. Kelly's the only one that stuck with it, though."

"She wanted to come with me down to Hoth," Shepard said. Jacob looked impressed by Kelly's nerve. Shepard continued. "I'd want her proficient with heavier firearms, and fitted up with combat armor before I allowed that. Jacob, if Kelly wants to go through with it, can you make it your personal responsibility to teach her? Try all four of them, see what you think."

Jacob nodded. "Aye, Commander." He turned to Kelly, considering her.

Kelly gave Shepard a quick smile, then turned to Jacob.

Shepard stood for a moment, watching the pair. Then turned away to get herself suited up.

* * *

><p>Korriban. The droid had called it Korriban. She'd been bound and escorted, roughly, onto a small ship of some kind. After maybe a day's travel, they'd landed somewhere. Her bindings had been removed, and had been forced from the shuttle.<p>

Korriban was not a nice place. The smog in the air gave the local sun a red blood like color– when she could see it. The shuttle had dropped between the clouds, and she could see a great deal of adorned stone and exposed rock. There was no grass, no real life.

After they'd disembarked, Jack had been stripped to the tattoos before being given a simple blood red robe and ordered to put it on. When she protested, she was given another dose of lightning. His tone was dismissive and arrogant.

She snarled in pain.

He looked at her tortured and unbowed face and smiled, raising his hands.

Jack put on the robe. The only thing noteworthy about it were the pockets. There was something in them, her translator earpiece. The comlink was missing. She fiddled a bit and put it on.

Darth Rael's face smirked at her. "You either can understand me, or you cannot. It does not matter to me. You already hate and fear me. This is a good start."

"Now I will teach you to draw on that fear. That hatred. It will make you strong." This was sounding a lot like Cerberus.

He led the way into a large building. Jack followed him. Much like in Purgatory, she wanted a way to escape, but there was no clear way to escape. Where would she go? She had no way off this rock.

There were hundreds of people in this building, and Jack followed him without question, and without losing him. None of the faces she glanced at looked any kinder.

They finally arrived at, well, something resembling an office. "You see. I have an apprentice. But I only want the strongest, smartest pupil."

He held out a small grey cylinder. "Take this."

Jack did. It was open on one end, Looking into it revealed a small, red, crystal. It looked like some old Earth weapon. It looked like the weapon Darth had threatened her with on the spaceport. She quickly moved the open end away from her face. This drew a nasty chuckle from Darth.

Holding sealed part towards her and pointing the open part towards Darth, she pressed the button. She was rewarded with a hissing noise, and the extension of about a four foot long 'blade' of fire red light. She could feel heat radiating from it. She hated it all ready.

She gave it a few experimental swings. It had no weight to it, nothing – other than the heat. "Screw this," she said. "Where's my shotgun?"

Darth chuckled. "You won't need such a clumsy weapon. Now. Defend yourself."

The Asari leaped from an open doorway with a similar red laser blade. Jack held up her own stick in an instinctive block, and it clashed with the other, giving off hear and energy, but refusing to be cut through. The Asari slipped backward, taking a moment to study Jack.

Jack returned the favor. It wasn't quite an Asari. It was blue skinned female, yes, but no Asari Jack had ever seen had red eyes. She raised her hand, and lightning flung itself out. Some of it was caught in the energy of the laser stick. The rest of it scorched Jack through the robes. She could feel the unnatural hatred the alien had for Jack in the lightning itself. Like those kids back...

She'd bombed those ghosts.

Jack grinned like a maniac. It was her turn. "I WILL THROW YOU LIKE A TOY!" She grabbed at the air, hurling the alien at the wall. It stunned the woman, but just briefly, and she turned to assault Jack with her stick once more.

Jack dodged backward, focusing her fear, her anger. She raised her hand, and her emotions exploded in lightning, striking back at the woman. In the back of her head, she could hear Darth clapping his approval.

Anger built up further inside her even as the alien rushed toward her. She clenched her fist, pounding it down to the ground, to create a shock wave of pure force. It rumbled through the room, knocking her opponent to the ground. The stick tumbled to the ground, extinguishing its own light with a hiss. She leaped forward, and brought her stick towards the neck of the now defenseless alien.

"Good. Good. Kill her. She's not worth anything more to me."

Jack froze. This was exactly like Cerberus. For a moment, she was that scared little girl again. A scared little girl forced to kill.

"Don't let a moment of weakness destroy you, my new apprentice. If you give her the opportunity, she will still kill you."

She hesitated, staring into the eyes of her victim. Damn it, it was like she had woken up back when she was a child. She was past this. She didn't care. Why did she think she cared. There was no mercy requested in those eyes.

Just a pure murderous hatred.

They reminded Jack of her own.

If their positions had been reversed, Jack would have been dead already.

Darth had raised his hand, and she knew what that meant. More pain, more lightning. The chance for the tables to be turned.

A moment later, Jack had cemented her position as Darth Rael's new apprentice.


	6. Chapter 6

Grunt awoke.

Again.

He'd woken a lot only to be sedated again. He had no idea how long he'd been going through this cycle. It was making him angry.

This time, though, he felt movement. He was strapped to something and being carted somewhere new.

His vision slowly came into focus in a blaze of neon and flashing lights. He growled, straining against his bindings. When they failed to give, he snarled, looking left and right. Two specific creatures came into view. The first was human. Generally weak and soft, occasionally showing steel to rival a Krogan. This one looked to be in the former category, it kept shooting Grunt nervous glances. It was not worthy of a fight.

The second looked like nothing Grunt had ever seen, not even from tank-mother. It was huge, not in a strong way. Quite frankly, it looked like nothing less than a giant slug. It looked massive, but not strong. This was a life form? Ha! It made even Volus look good. Grunt was quite confident he could tear it to shreds.

He struggled again with his bonds, roaring in anger. He was a Krogan. He could not be contained like some animal. Especially not by weaklings such as these.

The slug man looked interestedly at Grunt. He gave an affirmative sounding noise, then laughed. It was a deep voice that Grunt associated immediately with arrogance. "Huh. Huh. Huh."

The human gave one last look at Grunt, a look up to the slug thing, then turned and walked off. His face was a mixture of a mixture of relief and satisfaction. Two green pig like humanoids came from outside of Grunt's line of sight. They at least looked strong, like they could put up a worthy fight.

He was being wheeled below the ground. At least the neon lights were beyond his view. His eyes took a moment to adjust to the more normal, if not natural, lighting. This persisted for a few minutes. At the end of the corridor was an elevator. Grunt continued to struggle. He heard the voice of the slug thing issue a command. It took a few moments for the punch to come. They went for the area under his face. They acted like they'd never seen a Krogan before. He'd make it so they'd never forget them.

Just as soon as he got free. He continued to struggle.

The elevator dinged and Grunt was rolled into a prison. He could hear the shouts, catcalls, and threats directed towards him, or more likely to the people behind him. There was an electronic buzz, and Grunt's shackles opened. He was dumped into a cell, and locked in. He rose to his feet and growled.

There were several new kinds of aliens in there, with Grunt looking at each one of them in turn, sizing up their probable combat prowess. The only one that kept his attention for more than a few moments was a large furry shaped human one. It, alone of all the other inhabitants of the cells, looked calm and composed. It smiled back at him, a wide, confident smile.

Grunt smiled back at him. Yes. That one intrigued him.

They were fed. They slept, they were fed again. The food was a bland unflavorful grain like thing. There was conversation that Grunt could not take part in. He had no problem with this, it did not have the feel of anything important.

The pig like humans returned, and the whole cell block fell silent. Some of the faces looked worried, others seemed eager. The furry one looked relaxed, confident. His eyes were focused. The piglike thing pointed at Grunt. The entire area went quiet, with the furry one looking up in interest. His eyes went to the screen that Grunt had not noticed.

Grunt stood as the guards approached. When the first one opened his cage, reaching in his hand to put his hands on Grunt's wrists. Grunt turned suddenly, and yanked him. The guard had been expecting something like this, and was overpowered anyway. He went flying.

There was a shocked silence, other than the single furry alien, who absolutely cracked up, laughing and applauding. Grunt heard a laser blast over the laughter. He looked up to see a second kind of guard, looking mostly human, had leveled a sniper rifle at him. He couldn't see it, but he was willing to bet there was a red dot right between his eyes. He could take one shot, he felt sure of that. But he doubted they'd stop at one shot. He put up his hands in the human form of surrender. There would be another time to prove his strength.

He felt the point of something sharp scratch his back. He walked as he was indicated.

After about five minutes, he was led into a small room. His escort prodded him inside, then shut the door. Inside, there were the kind of weapons to warm a krogan's heart. Just in the ranged category, there was an assault rifle, a shotgun, a pair of pistols, some strange thing that resembled a human's crossbow. There were also melee weapons ranging from pikes to axes.

He couldn't think of many reasons to arm prisoners. The one that came to his mind first was that he was about to be forced to fight for his life, like some kind of animal. This wasn't a proof of superiority, like Okeer had wanted; nor was it the cause that his Battlemaster had championed. Why then? A test?

He selected one of the rifles that seemed most like the assault rifle he was used to. He fired it at the wall. The decorations on the wall clearly indicated it was used to this kind of abuse. He was interested to note it fired energy instead of a mass effect powered kinetic bullets. He strapped it to the back of his armor. He also took a side arm.

Nothing happened. He growled, pacing back and forth. There was clearly a second, bigger, exit. He expected it to open, any moment now.

Any moment now.

Patience was not particularly one of Grunt's virtues. It actually took a few minutes for that larger door to open. It opened into a large encircled open area that he peered into. It was completely, almost unnaturally, flat. There was no cover, no barricades.

It was also loud. He took a cautious step into it, looking for the foe that would make so much noise.

It wasn't a foe. He looked up after a few moments and saw the crowd, all screaming to see what this new alien was capable of. Grunt stepped back, almost into the room. He'd never seen this many people in one spot in his life.

The door clanged shut behind him. No turning back.

Grunt's attention was drawn to the other side of the arena, where another door was opening.

The opposing creature was somewhat Krogan like. It had a brown fur covering, and walked with a hunch. On the other hand, it had four powerful looking arms and a face that even he found ugly. It had a large club in one of his hands.

It was charging with an angry howl.

"I. Am. KROGAN!" Grunt shouted, his battle rage growing. He dropped to one knee, aimed his new rifle, and fired in short expert bursts. There was less kickback than he was expecting. "Hah! Right in the forehead!"

The creature kept coming at him, to his surprise and excitement. "Tough one, I like it!" He circled slightly, getting open ground behind him, and kept firing his energy rifle. An alarm noise began emanating from the gun, but there was no obvious way to eject a thermal clip and sink the heat. He didn't have any more clips anyway.

The creature reached him, and swatted at him with the club. Krogan and rifle together went flying a good two or three feet. His hump hit the ground with a thud. He rolled out of the way, his mind blocking the pain and his body all ready repairing the damage.

"It'll take more than that to lay down the perfect krogan!" Grunt shouted, he fired again. Then he he showed why people in the galaxy did not let a Krogan adversary get close. He charged his enemy, lowering his armored forehead and smashing into his opponent.

It staggered and fell on it's rump, staring at Grunt in amazement.

Grunt put the rifle to the exposed shoulder. He pulled the trigger and did not let go until the creature had fallen over in pain. The crowd roared approval. As his battle lust faded, the door behind him opened. The message was clear. He waited in that small room for a long time, piped in instructions simply going over his head.

The exit door opened, with three of the human-ish guards, all carrying powerful looking rifles. As they didn't strike first, Grunt made no move to stop them. They were good, two of them kept him covered while the third disarmed him of his new toy.

When they led him back to the his cell, the other prisoners looked at him nervously. They made no noise. The furred one, who appeared to be dominant, looked at him now in true interest.

The guards led another prisoner from their cell, and attention in the prison turned to a large screen on the wall. The screen showed the arena that Grunt had just been in. The prisoner, a nervous looking human, was set upon by another monstrous foe.

His fate against another creature did not go nearly as well as Grunt's had. There was nothing to bring back.

* * *

><p>Shepard, Tali, and Miranda touched down on the landing pad outside of the Republic base on Hoth. The wind whistled around their ears.<p>

They checked in at the base, where they were met by a human in a familiar military uniform.

[I can omit the whole handing out of translator earpieces? Good. I know Tali and Legion had made a number of them over the hyperspace flight.]

She nodded to them. "Major Jillian," she introduced herself, "Of the republic base on Hoth." An aide came up to her, handing her a piece of paper. She read it briefly, then shook her head with a grimace. "I have no..." she paused, meeting Shepard's eyes. "It's not ideal," she mumbled, but you're here." Then she spoke up. "Ms. Shepard," she started.

"Commander," Miranda corrected.

"We're not exactly in Alliance, or even Citadel, space at the moment," Tali told her. "She's Captain of the Normandy. Call her Captain."

Major Jillian raised an eyebrow. Then smiled and nodded, "Captain Shepard," she began again. "I know you were here to assist with the salvage operation. I would like to ask for your help in a different matter."

"I'm listening," Shepard said cautiously.

"We've had two separate groups of scouts go missing in a region south of here. Sargent Kronz is asking for someone to go looking for them. I promise to put in a good word with you with General Garza."

"Any initial suspects?" Shepard asked. A person in command wanting to chase down missing people struck a chord within Shepard.

The Major shook her head. "I don't know that the White Maw don't have a base down there, which probably means they do. There's an Imperial listening post, but no real wreckage, so no real conflict with them in that region."

"So you don't have any idea," Miranda said dryly.

"No. Not really," admitted Jillian.

"It's all right. I can certainly appreciate wanting to find people who are MIA," Shepard told her. "Let's get moving."

Their first impression of Hoth's exterior was that it was cold. Real cold. It'd been a while since Shepard had to have endured a class two freezing threat. This wasn't quite that cold, the HUD on her hardsuit kept flashing temperature warnings. They didn't stay lit, but they kept flashing on and off. Quite frankly, it annoyed her.

They had to take an atmospheric shuttle to the Clabburn Tundra, something about it being too cold for repulsor based speeders. They were met at the listening base by Sergeant Kronz. "Good to see you!" he told them as they disembarked.

"Good to be of help!" Shepard replied, shaking his hand. "Major Jillian told me you could brief us more specifically."  
>"Wish I could!" he told her. "Full squad of scouts, a half dozen people, just disappeared about an hour ago, about 2 clicks south of here. Last report was they had discovered a cave system, then we lost comms. I'm locked down here. I hope your squad is capable of handling it."<p>

"A klick," put in EDI over the comm system, "is slang for a measurement that's a little over a kilometer – about 1013.4 meters."

"We'll look for them for you," Shepard promised.

"Glad to hear it, glad to hear it," the Sergeant told her. "Captain Armaruk, that Talz over there, he's got information about the other group for you."

The Talz was what old earth legends might have called an abominable snowman. Built along humanoid lines, it was covered with a thick coat of white fur. It had four eyes, like a Batarian. Only the top, smaller pair were open at the moment. It had large hands, the fingers of which extended into talons.

Not something Shepard particularly wanted to come to blows with.

"More then one disappearance," it told her. "Several small groups, all reported being attacked before going dark." The words carried the marks of hesitation, worry.

"Do you know what attacked them?" Shepard asked her.

The Talz shook its head in a rather human like gesture. "No. " It told her.

"Where, and when?"

"It has been a few hours. About a klick and a half west by southwest from here," the Talz said. It spoke in quick, concise sentences. "Hurry, please." It then stepped back from Shepard, leaving a slightly uncomfortable feeling.

"Where to first, Commander?" Tali asked.

Shepard felt even more uncomfortable. It was almost impossible to judge which one was more likely to be alive. The mysterious disappearance, or the outright attack.

She glanced up at the sun, noted that must have been after the middle of the local solar day, the sun was descending – they would have to hurry. "Let's go for the disappearance first, then we'll see about the attack." She hoped she would not live to regret that decision.

They trudged through the snow and ice, fighting against the wind.

"Do you wish we had the..." Tali began.

"No," Shepard replied.

"But it's flat territory and the chance we'd run into a..." Tali protested.

"Still no."

Miranda looked more than a little curious at this, but apparently decided against asking further.

It was about a fifteen minute treck until EDI advised them they'd reached their approximate destination. She also said that scans of the planet revealed a local cave system, not far from their present location.

"Shepard!" Miranda shouted, having climbed a nearby ridge "We've got a live one!"

Tali and Shepard hurried over and were presented with a woman who appeared to be dressed completely inappropriately for the weather. She wore a white jacket top, a black robe for her legs, over a tight fitting bodysuit. Her hair was tied back into a bun.

"It takes some gumption to wake a Jedi up from a healing trance," she told them.

All three women stared at her with a blank look.

"I'd been attacked by a rather large Wampa, a White Terror," she explained. "She, and a few others that are following in her wake, are making their way towards a nearby Ortolan colony. If they make it there, they will not stop until every Ortolan has been eaten, or fled. I attempted to end the threat, but it gave a shot at rearranging my internal organs instead." She looked up at the team, in their combat armor, fully loaded for war. "I think you might give them a run for their money."

There was a pause before Tali spoke up. "Aren't you cold?" she asked. "Or do you need medi-gel."

The Jedi shook her head. "No, do not waste your supplies on me. Some more time in the healing trance will be sufficient. Especially if I'm going to have to try again."

This whole conversation was taking on a surreal turn in Shepard's opinion. "Do you know anything about missing Republic scouts?"

The Jedi thought for a second. "It is quite possible. I didn't make it that far into the cave," she admitted.

Normally, Shepard would have wanted to take her with them. This Jedi, though, was giving off an odd feeling. Maybe she'd taken some head trauma when she'd invaded the lair of whatever they were. In any event, she was content to leave her here.

The cave system EDI had spotted wasn't much further from the Jedi, and they were attacked about the moment they came in. Shepard wasn't really prepared for the aggressiveness of the Wampa, they compared unfavorably to Varren.

They were bigger as well. Much bigger. Talz might have been the idea of a missing link human version of an abominable snowman, but that made Wampas into yeti.

It was too bad that neither Grunt or Wrex was here. They would have loved this thing.

"Careful, Shepard," Miranda told her. "I think I saw something move in that ice pile."

Shepard raised the scope of the M-98 Sniper Rifle to her eye, scanning. "Think you're right. Tali, give it something to swing at."

"Hah!" Tali said."No one's faster than Chiktikka Vas Paus," she added, confidently activating her combat drone. The little purple ball of shielding zipped into the air. It hovered in place for a moment, then propelled itself forward. When the next wampa emerged, it pelted it with machine gun fire, and floated serenely towards the ceiling of the cave. Two more that they hadn't seen joined the attack.

"Warping the field!" Miranda said as she focused her biotics.

Shepard took aim, located a spot between the eyes of the first one they'd spotted, and braced herself. The recoil of the Widow was almost too much for her to take. Her arm ached if she used it too much. She loved the gun anyway. The bullet pierced the Wampa's skull. Both sides of it. That this left a mess was an under-exaggeration.

"Nice shot!" Tali said admiringly, before discharging her shotgun into the one charging at her and diving backward.

Shepard waited several seconds for the thermal clip to cool manually. She could have ejected it, but they had no means of producing more, and she was afraid she'd lose it in the darkness of the cave. She was standing far enough back though, that she could line up the next one, still burning from Miranda's warp energy. One shot...

Made it count.

Miranda had taken her assault rifle and begun pelting the remaining target.

When all three were down, they proceeded further down the corridor. The cave widened into a larger area, where several bodies had been stuffed into large blocks, mixtures of snow and ice, in many cases, only the heads were visible.

"Keelah!" Tali exclaimed. "They're alive!" She rushed forward, punching into her omnitool. "A prototype of Mordin's incinerate tech," she told Shepard. "I've under-clocked it, should melt the ice without harming them."

"Sergeant Kronz sent us to get you," Shepard told them, "we'll get you out of there."

The first few that were released wore Republic uniforms. "I knew the Sergeant wouldn't let us down. They milled about while waiting for the others.

The third was a Zabrak, and he wore a Sith uniform.

"Blast him!" shouted the republic soldiers Tali had freed. Tali looked to Shepard in confusion.

"Stand down!" she ordered them. They may not have understood her language, but they understood the connotation fine.

"If the tables were turned," another soldier complained, "we'd already be de... gwargh!"

Shepard had grabbed him by the collar before he finished speaking. "At the moment," she snarled, tapping her rifle, "I am the only one armed, and I'm not going to shoot at anyone who's not inclined to shoot first." She shoved him back. He staggered, looking at her in shock.

Miranda nodded approvingly. Tali got back to work.

All six of the Republic Scouts were still alive and accounted for. There were two more members of the Sith Empire, and they took off as soon as the third was freed. The others watched them go, shaking their heads.

"Well, thanks, at least, for getting us out of that," the patrol leader told Shepard.

[For the record, I think she should have shot the others. If we're going to support the Republic, we should have done so all the way.]

"Do you know anything about a White Terror?" Shepard asked him.

"It's what we call the biggest and ugliest of the things. Yeah, it's holed up in the back of the cave. That's the one that got us."

"We're going to finish the job," Miranda told them.

Shepard nodded her agreement.

"We're in no condition to fight," the patrol leader said, "But we can make it back to base, if you're good." Shepard said that she was, and they headed out.

"This shouldn't be that..." Tali began, as they headed into a large cavern in the back of the cave.

The Wampa came into view, and it was about twice... maybe three times the size of the others.

"It's never easy, is it?" Shepard asked nobody in particular. Then she got out of the way of the charging massive monstrosity.

The main highlights for this particular fight was the complete lack of cover, the sheer amount of punishment that the White Terror could take, and the sheer strength and speed of the Wampa. Shepard got hit once with the massive paws when she failed to roll out of the way. Her personal shield was not designed to take that much of a blunt force hit, and she felt it, hard. She fell to the ground as the suit's emergency medi-gel began dispensing to her wounds.

"Shepard!" Tali yelled, she was firing her shotgun as quickly as she dared.

The Wampa leaned down to crush her head, with Shepard managing to get out of the way at the last minute. The Wampa snarled it's displeasure. Shepard switched to incendiary rounds, ostensibly lying dead on the ground. The wampa was no bright creature, and the other two were still causing pain, and it turned on them.

Miranda slammed a biotic force against it, causing it to stagger.

Shepard rose to one knee, drew and leveled her pistol, and fired, and fired, and fired.

The incendiary lit as it departed the barrel, and it ignited the Wampa's fur.

It screamed in further pain. Shepard aimed her gun just a bit higher, at the creature's cranium.

BLAM!

After another exchange of firepower, the thing fell.

"Phoo," was noise Shepard made as her breath exhaled. "Let's not do that again."

"Copy that," Tali told her. They spent a few moments recovering what spent thermal clips they could.

In the list of the great fights Commander Shepard had been in, this was less stressful than fighting the Thorian. Perhaps about on par with that Krogan and Heretic squad she fought while rescuing Liara.

They met with the Jedi again, on the way to their other location. She eyed the blood on their armor. "Since you return, I assume that you survived your battle with the White Terror."

Shepard fixed her with a rather grumpy look. "Yes."

She reached into her robe, coming out with a small chit. "Here. Take some credits for your troubles."

Shepard stared at her, open mouthed, as she resumed her meditation. "Now I must finish healing this injury. Thank you again, Shepard."

To say the three were still mystified at this would have been an understatement.

Still, they'd gotten something of a bonus reward, found live scouts, and took care of a threat. It was a rather productive expedition.

The next step wasn't nearly as productive. She found the second group a scouts easily enough. They were dead. She picked them over for supplies, finding some kind of scanning device. They searched the area, but found no survivors.

When they returned to camp, the Talz ran to them. "Did you find them? Did you find a Talz with them?"

"They were dead," Shepard answered sadly. "No, I did not find any other Talz with them."

It took the scanner she offered, pressing buttons on it and observing it. "My..." the words were halted, mournful, "My son is dead then."

"I'm sorry," Shepard said, lowering her head in acknowledgment. "Is there anything I can do?"

"No, we will sing of the dead, but it is a matter for private mourning," Captain Armaruk told her. "Thank you."

Sergeant Kronz came up to her. "Sun's setting. We need to get into our outpost and seal the doors, or we all risk freezing to death. Come. We don't have much to share around, but my men want to salute the woman who brought them home."


	7. Chapter 7

Samara had always found space travel to be relaxing. It was mostly quiet, and a perfect time to mediate and collect her thoughts. Meeting the other companions of Jedi Knight Nixim was also interesting. There was Nadia, of course, who she'd already met. A Sarkhai, her fawning over Nixim troubled Samara slightly. She could not tell if they were reciprocated. Asari were used to mating with younger species, and younger members of species, but she realized it came off a bit odd in most others.

There was Qyzen Fess, Trandoshian and hunter. From what she learned, he enjoyed the hunt. His religion of a scorekeeper would have probably set him well with Grunt.

Dr. Tharan Cedrix, a human, attempted to charm her the moment he set eyes on her. Right up to the point where Nixim told him blandly that she could blow him up if she thought the wrong way. It was a joke, of course, but he seemed to stay a lot more cautious after that.

She didn't see much of the Twi'lek Zenith, once he found out that Samara had no real stake in this galactic war, he outright ignored her.

Lt. Iresso, on the other hand, was more like Nadia. The human was genuinely curious about the Asari, and life in her own galaxy. Exchanging stories, she found he reminded her a lot of Commander Shepard. He spoke of atrocities committed by the Empire, and how he had put his life on the line several times so others would be able to live in safety. He didn't seem to have her strength of will, but Samara knew of very few people who did.

Samara watched through the cockpit as they descended onto Coruscant. She had to admit, it looked impressive. If the sheer number of people and buildings per square mile of the Citadel had been put on a planet, it might ave resembled something like Coruscant. The ship touched down at the spaceport, from there, they took a taxi to the jedi temple.

The sheer number of people continued to impress the Justicar. It was the government capital of the entire republic, and in that sense as well, was very similar to the Citadel.

It was therefore very notable when she walked into the Jedi Temple. There was a feeling of calmness, and of serenity, that she had very rarely felt. The temple itself was a wide open building, carefully and tastefully decorated. There were a number of well tended plants and flowers that gave the whole thing a feeling of life that she admired.

"My mentor came here after recovering," Nixim told her, as if it explained something. After asking a passerby that Nixim apparently recognized, he led her down a long hallway, up a flight of stairs, and back in the original direction. At the end of the trek, he knocked on the door.

The human woman who opened the door was older than Samara would have thought. Dark circles ringed her eyes, and her pale face contrasted with her brown hair. Her light eyes studied the Asari with surprise, before turning to her former student. "Nixim," she said, allowing a faint smile to touch her face.

He bowed low. "Mistress Youn Par," he said, "May I introduce the Asari, Justicar Samara."  
>It was Samara's turn to bow, though she remained silent and watchful.<p>

"It is good to meet you," Youn Par said formally.

The next few days were given over to demonstrations of Samara's biotic abilities, as well as give and take comparing the Jedi Code to the Asari Justicar's code. Youn had clearly never met an Asari before, but treated her with the utmost respect. Apparently, this would make the second time that Nixim had worked with the first Jedi of a given race.

Lifting and throwing objects were apparently some basic skills for both Jedi and biotics. On the other hand, the barrier was a skill they had not seen before. Nor had she, outside Nixim's original demonstration, witnessed the healing capacity. The mindset, they agreed, provided the difference. The

Jedi code was the origin of the mindset, and of the rules that followed.

"_There is no emotion, there is peace._"

Separating emotion from duty is something that had been in conflict within Samara for a long time. Morinth was a criminal, a serial killer, an Asari with no self control. An Ardat-Yakshi who had embraced her condition. She was the smartest, most free of her daughters. That hadn't stopped Samara from killing her. The memory still hurt.

She'd thrown herself into being a Justicar as a consequence of her daughter's killing spree.

Maybe the Jedi could teach her to control her pain. It was this hope that drove her to accept Nixim's offer.

"_There is no ignorance, there is knowledge._"

This was easier to settle with. The Justicar code taught one did not know everything, that one should seek to learn as much as one could, about people, environments, situations. Without knowledge, how could one act with certainty?

"_There is no passion, there is serenity._"

This line seemed redundant to Samara. It did not signifcantly differ from the first. She supposed that it was to highlight the importance.

"_There is no death, there is the force_."

This felt a lot like many of the human's, and solarian's, religions the idea that one's spirit could carry on after death. Either guiding the future generations in spiritual form, or through reincarnation. They were ideas that Samara had found interesting. The Justicar's code similarly instructed to give up worldly possessions, even for similar reasons.

Did souls carry on after death? Samara hoped so, she hoped Morinth would have a chance to atone, to rise above what she had been in this life.

Then there was the lightsaber. Samara didn't know what to make of it, the Asari had given up on melee weapons thousands of years ago. The almost preternatural precognitive recognition of the Jedi Masters at deflecting rapidly fired blaster shots was a site to behold. It might have been more impressive to use a shotgun, but these were energy weapons, the equivalent of an assault rifle.

She was instructed on the construction piece by piece. It was the heart of the lightsaber, the focusing crystal, that she spent the most time on. The color of the lightsaber represented some piece of the jedi, some overarching part of her personality.

In the end, she chose a yellow crystal, representing the light she believed she would bring tho the galaxy.

It was in the middle of all these things that she had the vision. She had been meditating in a small room of the Jedi Temple. Her eyes were closed, and had been considering the ideals of the Jedi. She saw Shepard, lying on the ground. The surroundings were vague and indistinct, she could not make them out. There were other figures, too, they felt hostile, she couldn't make them out.

One of them felt like Morinth.

It felt real. Shepard was in trouble, if not now, soon.

When she asked her current instructor, a small green fellow by the name of Oteg, his response was somewhat cryptic. "The Dark Side. Strong it can be," he said, then he coughed. "Sorry. The Dark Side can be quite powerful, and it will attack you where you believe yourself to be weakest."

"But was it real?" she asked. "The Voss believe these visions," she said.

"There are those who see things through the force. They can be real," he told her. "Some only come to pass to those who try to prevent them. The question is this. Do you feel that this vision should break your training? Is your attachment to her that strong?"

Samara's eyes met his. They were large, wide, and expressive, especailly compared to the rest of his face. "No," she finally answered. "I trust Shepard, she can take care of herself."

Master Oteg nodded. He appeared to be considering Samara, but did not speak further.

When the light sabers was finally constructed, Mistress Youn Par stepped back. Samara activated it. It felt cool in her hand, with the yellow light extending in a beam of energy. She gave it an experimental swing. It was light, almost effortless. She'd seen the effectiveness of the weapon on Voss, though.

What really surprised her was that the blade emitted no heat. She was no expert in technology, but she understood that things that gave off light generally emitted heat as an inefficiency, and vice versa.

Now she would learn to use it, as they continued their discussion into the Jedi Code, and how it compared to the Justicar Code.

* * *

><p>It was an interesting, if flavorless meal. Ready to Eat Meals seemed to be the same across galaxies. The conversation was mildly awkward for the obvious reason, she didn't have the translator earpieces for everyone. They had enough that it worked passably, anyway.<p>

When Shepard had time to think about it, it was kind of odd. Life in the Milky Way was mostly peaceful. Sure, there was skirmishes with the Batarians, and war between the True Geth and the Quarrians was likely to break out at any time

But other than that, and the small welcome to the galaxy party by the Turians, there had been no open war in the galaxy since the Krogan rebellions. Maybe it was this ongoing peace that made everyone so reluctant to believe the reapers were coming.

This galaxy, so far as she knew, did not have the threat of Reaper invasion looming over them. Instead, they had at least the second iteration of a Galaxy War.

Given the choice, she didn't know which she preferred. The Reapers were alien, of course. They were also undeniably evil. She had seen what they had done to the Protheans. They had turned them into the Collectors. The Keepers of the Citadel didn't seem to have free will of their own, either. Humans that had been kidnapped were being changed into a giant Reaper core. It was easier to fight something that was not conscious of your very morality.

On the other hand, when she heard the stories of the soldiers of the Republic, they were fights that felt like they could be won. Shepard has sacrificed so much in fighting them. Blood, time, three hundred thousand Batarians, and all she had done was delay them. They were coming, and she did not think that her galaxy was prepared.

The sergeant had given them his room for the evening. Miranda won the roll, so to speak, and took the bed. Shepard and Tali made do with extremely thick and well padded sleeping bags. It was hard to tell if it was better or worse than what they had on the Normandy, it was sufficiently different. At least it was warm.

The next day began with a similarly tasteless breakfast. After breakfast, Sargent Kronz brought forward an alien. He reminded her of one of the aliens from old earth movies, the Sectoids or Greys, whatever. His head, compared to a human, was bald and oversized at the top. His eyes were large and dark without pupils or lids, almost insectoids. He was wearing what now Shepard recognized as a Jedi robe, though this one was brown. He was holding his arm, it was disjoined in such a way that she suspected it broken.

"Jedi Padawan Elsor," Kronz introduced him.

"Shepard," he said. "You brought us that datapad from the missing scout troops?" He asked.

Shepard nodded.

"Right, right. My master Heljus and I were attacked by a force of animals this morning."

"Where is he?" Miranda asked.

"We were separated. She used the force to bring down an avalanche. It got me away from them... but it must have trapped him!"

"Where?" Shepard asked.

"I could point it out on the map, but she ran, even as the ice fell. I don't think she's still there. We tried to raise her on the comm, but there is too much interference."

"That's where you could come in," put in Kronz. "The Whitemaw have set up communication jammers, if you could help take them down, we might be able to contact her."

Shepard nodded. "Seems reasonable enough, I'd be happy to help."

As it turned out, taking out the devices was quite possibly the easiest things Shepard needed to do in a long time. There wasn't much in the way of real defenses, apparently the pirate forces were thicker elsewhere. Also, they shot first. This made shooting back a lot less ethically troublesome.

"You should get Garrus down here," Tali joked, as she planted the explosive they were given on a second jamming device.

They backed up, making sure that the jamming device was truly offline before proceeding to the coordinates given for the next one. "Oh?" Miranda asked. "Why?"

"Time him. See how long it takes before the entire band of pirates want him dead, too."

They all laughed a bit at that.

It took about an hour for the devices to be cleared and the team to return to the base. Kronz and Elsor were waiting for them.

"Glad to see you're done, we've been trying to get the Jedi..."

"I've got something!" shouted Elsor from his chair. "Mistress!"

"To anyone who hears this," said the voice. Even though he had a holoprojector, no image appeared. Probably had some sort of camera.

"There is a Sith Beastlord here, and he's bending the animals too his will. He's trying to create an army. I'm transmitting his coordinates. It's too late for me... you must hurry, stop him from..." there was the sound of energy, of roaring wampas, then a scream.

Then silence.

"Mistress!" Elsor cried, stricken with panic.

More silence.

It occurred to Shepard that she had seen that face before. It was the same look that Joker had on his when he thought Shepard was going to fall in the collector base.

"You loved her, didn't you?" Shepard asked quietly.

"Wasn't love," he shook his head. His put his hands up to shield his eyes, shading his face from light and view. "Respect. I respected her like no other." He looked down, then back up at Shepard. "There is no Death. There is the Force. Please. Make sure her sacrifice was not in vain. Not even Wampas deserve to be controlled like that." He struggled with something for a moment, then dropped his head. "I want to go with you."

Shepard could relate. "I don't think that's a good idea, though, not with your arm like that."

He gave a small, wan, smile. "I said want to. Not that I should. Good luck,"

Shepard nodded, then looked up at Kronz. She passed him the datapad that he'd given her to track the jamming station. He looked at the display, tapped a few things, then handed it back to Shepard.

They set out almost immediately.

"This is not what I expected this mission to be like, Shepard!" Tali complained. "I was hoping for more technology, fewer angry beasts."

"So was I, Tali," Shepard replied. EDI had found the cave near the coordinates given by the Jedi. It was a much more narrow, windier cave, which meant holstering her beloved Widow for a more standard assault rifle."Still it does feel good to be helpful like this." These were assorted packs. There was everything from wampas to Taun Tauns to what appeared to be some sort of snow wolf working against them. And they had strategy that no normal animal could rightly have.

They slogged through. Shepard had instructed them to keep a look out for the body of the Jedi Master, but even by the end of this particular cave, they hadn't seen it.

They could certainly see the the apparent human in the dark black robes. He began to charge forward with his pack of beasts.

"Clear the extras!" Shepard shouted, she fired in three quick bursts before diving away from the Sith's lightsaber. It was the first time Shepard had seen one in action up close, and she didn't want to experience what it actually felt like. She wasn't quite fast enough.

There was a hissing noise, and sparks flew as it met the kinetic dampening shield. Miranda reacted first. "Get away from her!" she shouted, she reached out with her biotics and slammed the Sith. Then her attention was diverted by another wampa heading toward her.

Shepard heard the steady beat of Miranda's pistol as she kept steadily plugged.. Then the roaring of flames. Tali was apparently experimenting further with Mordin's incinerate tech, as the fur on the Wampa attacking Miranda had burst into flames.

The Sith threw lightning, the shock of it overloading her kinetic dampeners. Shepard continued to fire, most of her shots hitting the target. She saw Tali's drone, Chiktikka, circle around to the sith's back with its own light weapon.

Shepard allowed just a brief moment of attention, as she rose to her feet, to confirm that the last of the animals was dead. The Sith had apparently chosen her as the leader, and he leaped at her a second time, attempting to get close enough that Tali could not use her shotgun.

Shepard responded the best way she knew: She ran. It may have seemed a bit cowardly, but if the Sith was forced to keep up with her, it left him wide open to shots and attacks from her comrades. If she ran him close enough...

BOOM! Went Tali's Shotgun.

Well, that would happen.

She spun as he turned to Tali. Exactly how much punishment could this Sith endure? She fired, full auto, ejecting multiple thermal clips. It seemed like it took minutes, but they did finally dispatch the Sith.

"Keelah se'lai," Tali breathed. "And I thought it was a long time fighting wave of wave of Collectors. Let us hope the Reapers do not indoctrinate any of them!"

Shepard said nothing, but she agreed with the sentiment. She picked up the fallen lightsaber as proof the deed was done. "Let's head back."

It was a much quieter return to the encampment. They found Sergeant Kronz in a small office, near the entrance to the main base.

He looked almost pale, and looked at Shepard with a healthy dose of fear.

Shepard held up the extinguished lightsaber, and Kronz visibly flinched.

"I... I got a personal holo from General Garza. She wants to talk to you, directly."

Garza? Right. The one who'd ostensibly hired her in the first place. After a moment, Kronz activated a larger version of the holo communicators Shepard had seen used previously. This one apparently had room for two forms.

Miranda wrinkled her nose. "That's a Batarian."

"How did a Batarian get here?" Tali asked.

Garza, and the Batarian, ignored them both. "You are Commander Shepard, Captain of the Normandy?" it asked.

Shepard nodded her assent. "You have me at a loss..."

"Captain Necklik, of the Batarian Hegemony. A ship resembling an Alliance Cruiser was seen departing from the Viper Nebula," he stated, anger rising in his voice. "Not much later, a massive asteroid crashed into the Mass Relay in that system. It went off a huge explosion, chaining it into the sun and causing it to go nova. Do you know how many Batarians..." he began to shake with rage. "How many Batarian CIVILIANS died when that explosion reached the planet?"

Shepard lowered head. She hadn't wanted to do it. "Over three hundred thousand," she whispered. It echoed in her head. "Three hundred thousand," she said again, more loudly. "Sacrificed to slow the Reapers."

"Most of them were slaves," added Miranda.

"The Reapers!" shouted Necklik. He spoke with anger and outright hatred. "Not even your own damn citadel believes in the Reapers. Over three hundred thousand. MAYBE with one in ten of them slaves. This is a war crime..."

General Garza butted in, her voice calm and calculating. "Captain Shepard? Do you dispute this?"

"Only that the Reapers are real. They are preparing to attack our entire galaxy, harvesting all known organic life."

"She has no proof to back that statement. She attacks civilians and hides behind a reputation and a theory. A DREAM! She doesn't even bother denying the event. She knows the Alliance would never prosecute the Hero of Skyllian Blitz!"

Garza nodded. "I cannot let this much of a war crime go unacknowledged, Shepard. Seargent, hold her and have her sent to Coruscant. I will contact Hoth Space Station and have them lock down the Normandy."

"That was it, wasn't it," Tali exploded. "You just wanted to get a chance to look at the Normandy, because you needed technology to win YOUR war!"

"A happy coincidence," Garza said. "Sergeant, you have your orders. Garza out." The hologram winked out.

Shepard and Kronz stared at each other. He hadn't said anything, merely watched Shepard's face. "You believe it, don't you. The Reapers, I mean." Shepard nodded to him.

"Saren did," Tali added bitterly. "It took dozens of ships and crews to just bring one of them down. The Citadel blamed it on the Geth. They're coming though. I've seen the proof."

"You saved the lives of my men, and spared the Imperials. I can't believe that you would callously sacrifice innocent people like that." Kronz said, "I'm going to face a court marshal for this," he muttered to himself. He pulled something from his pocket. "Look. Take these credits. You might be able to use them to bargain with the imperials."

Shepard frowned at him. [And at me. Fine. I get it.] "Bargain, for what?" she asked.

"For a way off this planet. I'm not going to hold you no matter what Garza says. The brass forgets that the big picture is made up of small ones, most of the time. You've saved too many of my men for me to do that. I can't countermand her ordering of the lockdown, though. Hurry, before Major Jillian sends anyone down here to pick you three up."

Shepard reached out to shake Kronz's hand. "Your troops are lucky to have you. Can you mark that imperial base on our map?"

When they exited the base. Shepard activated her com. "Did you get all that, EDI?"

"Yes, Commander. The lockdown is already in place. We are not able to undock."

"Blast it. Fine. Patch me through to Kasumi."


	8. Chapter 8

Kasumi considered herself the best thief in the galaxy. At least, she hadn't heard of any better ones. Then again, she wouldn't have. At least if they were as good as her.

On the gripping hand, as Keiji would have said, the Illusive Man had Shepard come to her because he felt she was the best. If the Illusive Man thought you were the best, then you probably were.

That was good, because right now, Shepard needed the best if she was going to be able to get pulled off that frozen ice ball down below.

Her infiltrator suit had been designed with a special circuit to absorb light, as well as most sensor frequencies, and made it perfect to get into places that most people would have preferred she'd stay out of. These were always the most interesting places.

She slipped, perfectly silent, through the pair of guards, guarding the exit from the Normandy's docking area.

"Kasumi, you may want to hurry," came Garrus's smooth voice over the comm. "EDI reports that there is a pair of shuttles launching from the surface of the planet. I suspect that those are marine teams coming to storm the Normandy.

"Cool your jets," she whispered back. "I'll get it done. Going silent."

She looked around outside the docking area. There were several other of the durable doors, probably leading to other docks. The place looked pretty empty though. A single large pair of double doors appeared to be the best bet.

She slipped up to them, pushing against them slightly. Locked. No matter. It was a simple matter to use her omnitool to hack into them. Slice into them. She had decided she liked that term better. It didn't even matter that these things where almost completely different technology than what she was used to.

Locks were still pretty much locks. This one had some sort of palm scanner. It was primitive, compared to some of the things she had had to get through, actually. They should have gone with a full DNA scanner. It would be much harder to brute force.

"Don't give them security ideas, Kasumi," she thought to herself. After sveral seconds, the door gave a gentle, "beep." She paused briefly, then cautiously pressed the door open, glancing through it before she slipped in.

A hallway, crossed with a second hallway. There were doors leading to unknown places. Kasumi wrinkled her nose. She would bet the closest one was a restroom. Passing them by, she glanced down each one in turn.

She had to press herself against the wall to let some alien running down down the hall towards the room she'd smelled earlier.

"It's most likely the most secure room here," she told herself. She'd bet money there was a security station that initiated the lock down, and now she thought she knew where it was. The left hallway had a single pair of large doors, similar to the ones that separated the docking area from the rest of the ship.

Bingo.

She walked carefully down to them. Another palm scanner. The same palm must have opened both doors, and it must have read the same points. Sloppy. She did not immediately open this door, though. She stood to one side. Military people being what they were, she knew what would happen next.

Right on schedule, a Republic officer stuck his head out of the door in confusion. When he didn't see anyone, he pushed the door open further and looked out the other way.

This meant he was unprepared for the ever stealthy infiltrator. She slipped behind him, and slammed the butt of her pistol down on top of his unarmored head. It sounded with a large crack.

He was completely unprepared for this, and graciously slumped over, his body keeping the door from closing. Kasumi peered over his body into the room, the force of the action overloading her cloaking tech.

There were a number of consoles, and monitors facing the other way.

It was otherwise empty of life. There didn't even appear to be any VIs.

That was nice of them.

She quickly pulled the unconscious human through the door, dumping him into a corner. She activated her comm as she headed toward the consoles. They showed various parts of the station. She could see dormitories, eating areas, and of course, various docking areas. They even rotated between the bays automatically.

It was almost cute.

She headed up to the console. Eschewing their control system entirely, she began to try to hack the connection itself. It was the technical equivalent to hot wiring a hover taxi. "EDI," she whispered into her communicator. "I've found the console, and I've started the hack. If you monitor the stream, you can probably figure out how to unlock the Normandy. Preferably, you can do it after I'm back on board."

"Establishing a link," EDI reported. "Just keep the omnitool there, in the powered on and upright position for about one minute."

Joker was right. EDI's sense of humor did need some work. "Copy that, EDI. When you've established a connection, let me know."

While her connection continued to set up, Kasumi began to poke around the rest of the security area. Sadly, there wasn't much that interested her too much. Printed records of inbound and outbound republic ships, possible sightings of imperial ships in there area.

"I have the connection, and can detach at any time. I suggest hurrying. Estimated arrival time for the inbound shuttles is roughly two minutes and forty one seconds."

"I copy, EDI, thanks."

She moved to leave, before any alarms sounded or the guard woke up. As a thought, she turned to consider the guard, still laid out on the floor.

She tied his boot laces together. Then she reactivated her infiltration system and slipped back to the Normandy.

"I'm on board, EDI," Kasumi said. "Tell Garrus he can start calibrating the weapons... just in case they start shooting."

"Thank you, Ms. Gato," EDI replied in her ear. Then, to the ship as a whole. "Airlock sealed. Prepare for flight."

"Engaging stealth system," Joker's voice added.

Kasumi smiled. Then headed back to her quarters for a drink.

* * *

><p>"We can't. The shuttle doesn't have a stealth system," Shepard said. "With the Whitemaw pirates, Imperials, and Republic all willing to shoot it down, it'd have a hard time just making it to the surface."<p>

"I know," Miranda replied. "But if we don't find heated shelter before nightfall, we're going to freeze to death."

The journey from Republic controlled Hoth to Imperial controlled Hoth was uneventful. Tali joked that even the wampas could sense Shepard's bad mood and were staying away.

The Imperial soldiers were dressed in all dark grey uniforms. Their rifles were trained on Shepard as she approached. She held up her hands away from her weapons, trying to give off that "Come in Peace" vibe.

They stood, tense, at attention, for a few minutes. Another being stepped out, a Chiss, if Shepard remembered correctly, glanced at the soldiers. "At ease," he told them. He turned to the commander. "You are Commander Shepard, who crash landed on Voss. You can understand basic, but not speak it. That is correct?" he asked.

Shepard met his eyes and nodded.

"You also not only rescued three of my men from the White Terror yesterday, but you spared them from being attacked by the republic soldiers?""

She nodded again. [I can hear you smirking. Stop it.]

He raised his eyebrows. "What happened between you and the Republic?"

After making sure he could understand her. "It's a long story involving wampas, Batarians, and a mass relay." She rolled her eyes. "What it really involves is the Republic brass wanting to poke around in weapons and ship components that don't belong to them."

The Chiss considered her for a moment. "Alright, I can buy that. What does this have to do with us?"

Shepard's reply was blunt and to the point. "I need a way back up to the Normandy. We have a shuttle, but it's not suited for combat purposes."

"What's in it for the Sith Empire?" he asked. "I'm not exactly running a Taxi service."

"Credits?" Shepard offered. "Fuel money?"

He gave her a hard, calculating look.

Miranda threw up her hands. "What? Is there some nefarious beast that you need killed? Some band of pirates stole the makings of some remote artillery?"

Shepard held up her hand. "That's enough, Miranda. Up to about half an hour ago, we could have been classified as enemy operatives." She turned back to the Chiss. "The point is made, though, and there's not much sense in beating around the bush. If there is something specific you want, you'll need to be more direct about it."

The Chiss grinned. It was somewhat disconcerting to look at. His teeth were not quite human like, and he was bearing them. "Our scouts mentioned something about some kind of plasma technology." He nodded towards Tali, "She used it to free scouts from both sides."  
>Tali stepped forward, then turned toward the great expanse of snow and ice. She fired the incinerate tech. It traveled out about thirty meters before meeting the ice. It sizzled for a bit, turning some of the snow into water momentarily, before it froze again.<p>

"There's a reserve of energy in the tool that it uses to ionize and disperse the gas that's," Tali began.

Shepard gave her another minute to prattle, then, noting the glazed eyes of the Chiss, she put her hand on the Quarrian's shoulder. "I think you've gone over his head, Tali."

Tali stopped in sudden confusion. "Oh. Sorry,"

Shepard considered the Chiss in front of her. It seemed like a lopsided trade. "Look," she said, after a flash of inspiration. "I'd be willing to give you schematics of the tech, but maybe you can do one other thing for me."

The Chiss smiled again. "Let's hear it."

Shepard drew and unloaded her sidearm. "Our weapons rely on a heat sink technology for rapid firing. They cool over time, of course, but don't do it that quickly. I've seen what people here use, and I'm going to assume you've never seen anything like this."

"You assume correctly."

"We don't have the resources to manufacture more thermal clips. Maybe we can alter the deal slightly. Say, three of your laser pistols and a way up to the Normandy, in return, we provide you with the details on the plasma technology."

The Chiss nodded. "That sounds like a very reasonable trade" he told her.

"Great," Shepard said without rancor. She held out her hand.

The Chiss shook it, and invited them in. "Captain Dra'co," he said, introducing himself.

The trip was in two parts. The first was to the main imperial base. That one was in a small atmospheric shuttle much like the Republic one they'd taken the previous day.

It was while they waited for the full sized shuttle capable of interstellar travel that Legion contacted them via the comm.

"Attention: Shepard-Commander."

"What have you found, Legion?" Shepard asked.

"We have found video on the holonet of a Krogan. We could not confirm, but high probability exists, of it identifying as 'Grunt'."

She glanced at Dra'co, who was serving as a military escort until the shuttle arrived. "Is there a screen we could use?"

He nodded, leading them into a large room, where a number of small computers lay unoccupied. "Not quite what I expected," Shepard admitted.

"It's the only room in the base with holonet access. It is a military operation," he explained. "But there isn't much to do here when sealed for the night."

Legion rattled off a holonet address. The video it loaded was shaky and unprofessional. But it was clearly of a krogan, using an assault rifle, taking on some great beast. To Shepard's annoyance, there was no sound.

"What IS that thing?" Tali asked, horrified.

"I have no idea," Dar'co admitted. "I do know where it is, though. That's Ko'Pa's arena, on Nar Shadda," he snorted. "A Hutt."

"A Hutt?" asked Miranda.

"Slavers. Gangsters. Disgusting creatures," he said, the disgust ringing through his voice. "They feed on the criminal elements of the war. They do not choose a side, but profiteer off both sides equally."

"At least we have a destination after we leave here, then."

The Chiss looked up at Shepard speculatively. "You intend to go up against Ko'Pa? Rescue his fighting slaves? That's certain death."

"We haven't had a true suicide mission in a week," Tali said. Shepard could hear the laughter in her voice. "We're due."

Captain Dar'co stared at her. "Hah! On your head be it. I know a guy who knows a guy, he can get you a private berthing terminal on Nar Shadda."

Shepard looked at him, her eyes narrowing. "What's the price? I'm starting to get sick of these hidden fees."

He held up his hands apologetically. "You're going to throw slavery in the Hutt's face? Supporting that is its own reward. This one's on me. Promise."

"Alright, alright," Shepard told him, mollified. "Did Mordin transmit the incinerate tech to your satisfaction?"

Dar'co nodded. "Shuttle should be touching down momentarily. Good luck. I've established a common skip radio frequency with your droid on the Normandy. Don't hear many droids with female voice chips." He shrugged, "Suppose some might find them more relaxing."

Tali gave a nervous cough.

"Anyway. The shuttle should be landing soon. We'll get you back on board the Normandy."

It took about thirty minutes, but it was otherwise uneventful. They took an Imperial shuttle to the Imperial orbital base, which quite honestly, looked much like the Republic orbital base.

From there, it was a short walk to the docked Normandy. Shepard set course to Nar Shadda, moon of Nal Hutta.

She'd half expected an angry message from the Republic, but she didn't get one. She might have hung up on them if they did contact her, something Joker had often wanted to do with the Council, and finally got his way with the Illusive Man. Ah well.

* * *

><p>On Voss, Agent Jer'do was investigating a small outpost of Gormak. The Imperial Ambassador had been asked to send someone to investigate by the Three.<p>

It was quiet. He could hear Dr. Lokin's patient breath slightly behind him, but there were no birds, no other animals. It was strange, Voss had an abundance of wildlife.

What's more, the outpost appeared to be empty. There were structures enough to support at least twenty to thirty Gormaks, but there were none here. The first structure they went into, which appeared to be some type of barracks, even had a food on the table.

"Something's wrong here," Dr. Lokin said, quite unnecessarily.

They went from room to room, still finding nobody.

"I hear something," Jer'do said finally. "Something scratching at that door, trying to get out."

"Probably a cat," snorted Dr. Lokin.

"Be ready," he said.

It was a poor choice of words. They could never have been ready for the thing that lurched out at them. It looked like a Gormak. But only superficially. The skin was still grey, but had gone a much paler shade. Veins pulsing with some kind of blue energy crisscrossed the skin. The mouth was open, almost impossibly wide. The scream was deafening. It lurched towards Jer'do, and he could feel the electricity that had built up on it.

He fired into its chest.

It fell, but he kept firing.

Lokin had frozen. "What is that?"

"I have no idea," Jer'do replied, wiping his brow.

"Its... its mechanical. No. It can't be. It's bleeding. Powers. I've never seen or heard of anything like this. It's not a cyborg."

"We better show this to the Three," Jer'do said. Lokin nodded fervently.

When they did, the Three spoke as one.,"Inform Commander Shepard."

* * *

><p>How long had she been there? It may have only been a few days, but it felt like weeks. Sleep itself was becoming a luxury.<p>

Jack was living in fear. This Darth person used lightning the way Pavlov used a bell. Every little misstep was met with pain and the threat of death. She was convinced he could, and would do it, too.

She had been trying to duplicate what she had one before with the lightning. During the fight with his former apprentice, it had felt like something had snapped inside of her. She could not replicate it.

Darth watched her with his beady red eyes. "Was it the fear, perhaps?" he whispered, licking his lips. "Do you need proper motivation? Perhaps. Perhaps. Come. Follow me."

He stood, crooking his finger once. He turned, and headed from the room. Jack followed, feeling like a broken disheartened puppy. They went, for the first time since she arrived, outside the walls of the Sith 'academy'. Or whatever it was.

The ground past the landing area was red, rocky, and desolate. It was more like a moon than a planet capable of supporting life. The canyon she was led to was no better from the rest of the place.

"There is a K'lor'slug Broodqueen in this valley. Bring back its head," Darth told her. He held out the lightstick for her to take. "Otherwise, you will not leave alive. I do not want to train a new apprentice, but I will. If I have to."

Jack swallowed. Her own fear was palpable. This was not like her, there was something about him that was making her feel like a child.

She hated it. What would Shepard have thought of it?

She progressed into the valley, small bugs popping up at her, attacking her. They were disgusting creatures, resembling large centipedes, with large dagger like legs. They had maws full of needle like teeth. They apparently considered her food.

The lightsword took care of the smaller ones. A single swing would cut them in half, searing them like steaks. Only not nearly as good smelling.

These were supposed to make her fear?

She progressed through the valley, she did not notice the wind, nor even the sun. Getting deeper, they got bigger, and they started using tactics. One would tunnel up from behind her while she dealt with one in front of her. They would dodge too, forcing her to use her biotics to force them to swinging distance.

This would go so much easier with a shotgun.

After about another five minutes walk, this became swarms. They did NOT want her there, and they did not want her to do whatever it was she was planning on.

She felt the anger build up in her. She hadn't wanted to fight them any more than they wanted her here. But they were starting to piss her off. The queen had to be somewhere nearby, but she was starting to be overwhelmed.

Jack spun again, as a handful of the larger bugs threatened to engulf her from behind. She was forced to leap back, her breathing heavy. She threw a pulse of biotic power, knocking them backward and scattering them. They rolled it off and came at her again, and they were joined by even more.

Something snapped again and instinctively, she snarled, and lighting emitted from her outstretched hand. The air smelled of ozone and burnt flesh. There was a power that Darth was teaching... no, inspiring her to tap into. It thrilled and frightened her.

She turned, catching her breath, and for a moment, she felt it. There was life here, and it felt primal. It almost felt like Shepard's description of the Thorian. She had a second to catch her breath, and focused on that feeling of life. She turned in that direction. It was close.

The swarm must have sensed her drive, it backed off momentarily. She took the opportunity to run forward, dimly aware that she was screaming.

There! That had to be the Bloodqueen that Darth wanted.

Jack winced. She thought the images EDI had displayed of the rachni were bad. It was uglier than an unsuited Volus... and that could get all over the place. There was nothing for it, though. The swarm was coming. She gave one last blood curdling scream, lightning hissing through the air as she charged. Then she jumped.

When she landed on the other side, she had decapitated the monstrosity, and the swarm had fled. Either in terror or because there was nothing left to protect, she wasn't sure.

She was sure that it was going to be a messy trek back to Darth.

Jack believed he was wrinkling his nose as she approached. He motioned to discard the head.

"Now blast it with lightning," he instructed. "Or you shall have to fetch another."

She was able to reach it now. It was a deep primal well of energy, that she had found, and could tap into. She did not know how she could do it, maybe being around other people that did had inspired her in some way she did not know of.

She gave Darth a hard look, turned, and blasted the head of the blood queen. It exploded, leaving pieces of blood and sinew everywhere.

Darth smiled. It was still a thin lipped smile that Jack was not sure was showing pleasure. It certainly did not make him appear attractive. He said no more, but turned and walked back the way they had come.

A transport ship of some kind had landed at the starport. It was small, especially compared to the Normandy. Bigger than an atmospheric jet, not quite the size of a military frigate. Darth gave it only a quick curious glance, before continuing back towards the Academy where they had come from.

At the entrance, they passed a group of kids.

Jack stopped and stared. They were of different races, she knew that. All of them were humanoid. One had blue skin and red eyes, another one had a type of hair curl that resembled an Asari. A few others were human. They couldn't be more than six or seven.

One of them, a female with large frightened grey eyes, and a bone colored head bereft of hair, was a dead ringer for Jack at that same age. The eyes stared up at Jack, flinching at her, expecting to be struck.

Jack started, feeling a cold sweat beginning to bubble on her brow. She'd thought she'd had flashbacks of herself.

She hadn't been. She'd been seeing that girl.

The Darth realized Jack had stopped, and turned to look at her. "You may stop gawking at the slaves. A master will be down, eventually. He will pick them up, and start their training. I believe they are too young to replace you. You need not worry."

Jack hurried to catch up. "Where did they come from?" she asked him.

He looked at her in momentary confusion, as if not understanding what she was asking. "Ah. Them. All force sensitives in the Empire are brought here. Here, they will be made strong, or break from the attempt."

Jack felt a freezing chill down her spine. "Break?"

"They will survive, or they will not," he continued, as if she did not say anything. "It makes no difference to me. It should make no difference to you."

Jack didn't stop. But it took all her willpower not to stare at the back of Darth with vile, undisguised hatred.

As she walked to the office, she knew only one of them was going to come back out of it.

They wanted to make more of her. In the same way Cerberus had.

FUCK.

THAT.


	9. Chapter 9

Samara was meditating. She had been left alone in a small room of the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. She was having the vision again. Again, she could see Shepard lying on the ground. The shadow presences were still around her. If they would only move closer to her, she would be able to see them, to warn Shepard about the threat...

There was a knock on the door behind her, bringing her back to reality.

Samara breathed deeply to clear her head and called out. "It is open."

Master Oteg walked in, looking at the Asari. "I apologize for the interruption. You have been requested to talk to the Republic's council."

Samara rose to her feet, cocking her head in surprise. "Council?" she asked the small green alien.

"There's at least two important councils," Oteg told her. "You've met the council of the Jedi Masters. This is actually the other one, the council of the Supreme Chancellor, a collection of senators from a few of the planets in the Republic."

Samara looked at him in confusion. "They want to talk to me?"

"Yes, and they wouldn't tell me why," Oteg said. "That alone would be somewhat suspicious. But they asked for the Asari, Samara." He looked up at her. "We did not advise them of your presence by your request."

"Which makes the question: How did they learn about me," she stated. Oteg nodded. "Only one way to learn."

The chamber she was led to was not unlike, well, the Council Chamber of the citadel. If more, well, down to earth. There were three podiums There was a pair of tables in front of those podiums, and several seats in back of those tables.

Oteg pointed to the front table, as others filed into the room. Samara took one of the seats, Oteg looked like he was about to take the other, but instead climbed onto the table, sitting on top of it. It had the effect of making his head and Samara's roughly even.

Three people, two humans and a Twi'lek, walked into the room, and stood at the podiums. The quiet muttering that had been building in the room quieted.

"You are the Asari Samara, former crew member of Captain Shepard of the Normandy," the male human said. "Is that correct?"

Samara glanced at Oteg. "Can they understand me?" she asked.

"We can understand you perfectly, Samara," the Twi'lek told her.

Samara nodded. "Then, yes. That is correct. I was the companion of Commander Shepard, of the Alliance Navy."

The three councilors glanced at each other. "General Garza, where is the other?"

A grey haired woman, snappily dressed in a decorated military waled forward, taking a seat in the other table. "He is... there, actually."

Samara turned to take an open look over her shoulder. Many of the aliens of this universe were unfamiliar to her, but she knew a Batarian when see saw one.

"You are Captain Necklik, of the Batarian Hegemony, correct?" the female asked.

The Batarian affirmed this.

"You have testified to the destruction of a solar object known as a Mass Relay in the Batarian System of Bahak. You believe, and Shepard has confirmed by holo, that the crew of the Normandy was responsible for the destruction."

He affirmed that, too.

The councilors shifted their gaze to Samara. "Can you please explain what happened, in your own words, Padawan Samara?"

Samara gave as much detail as Shepard had given her. That she had gone to rescue a friend of hers, Dr. Kensen, who had been captured by the Batarians. Shepard had known she had been investigating a potential Reaper artifact. The truth was worse, they had discovered a potential entry point for the Reapers into the civilized galaxy."

"Excuse me," The male human asked. "What are Reapers?"

"Sentient Artificial Intelligences. They exist on platforms of Capital Ships. Every fifty thousand years, they come to harvest all sufficiently advanced organic life in our galaxy."

The Batarian gave an aggravated snort.

"Do you have evidence that these Reapers exist?" the Twi'lek asked.

"One attacked the citadel, about two and half years ago," Samara said. "Commander Shepard led a team that fought off the troops it deposited as ground forces. I watched as others fought through a derelict one. It was like no ship I had ever seen." Samara's eyes bored into the Twi'lek's as she spoke.

"But a fleet of them?" the Batarian protested. The councilors shot him a glance, and he stilled again.

"The ones who attempted to take over the citadel did so for a reason. The Collectors attacked us for a reason," Samara said, calmly without acknowledging the interruption. "I believe that, yes, there is a fleet of them. And they are coming, though maybe not here." She paused to gather her thoughts for a moment. "Shepard has my trust. She has earned it. If she says they are coming, then she has no doubt in her mind that they are coming. If she says that destroying the relay in Bahak was the only way, then it was the only way."

Samara turned to the Batarian. "No matter what you think of humans, or of the other council races, know this. Shepard would not throw a single life away needlessly. Let alone three hundred thousand."

The Batarian folded his arms, his four eyes appearing angry and sullen.

"We thank you for your testimony in this matter," the male human said. "There is another matter which we wish to show the both of you." He gave a signal of some kind, and the lights in the room darkened. On a video screen to one side, there was an image taken of a body on Voss.

Samara recognized it instantly. It was a husk. It may not have been the husk of a human, but it was still a husk. The implication was obvious. There was a Reaper – a living Reaper – somewhere in this galaxy.

"That is one of the things that fought alongside the Geth at the battle for the citadel. I believe. The Asari would know more about that than I would."  
>"I would. That is a husk. Husks were human," she frowned and backed up. "They were organic once. They had their blood drained, replaced with a technology that I certainly do not understand. They serve the reapers. Where did it come from?"<p>

"It was found on Voss. It is shaped like a Gormak." The councilor turned to the Batarian. "What do you say to this, Captain Necklick?"

"I admit... I am not sure," The Batarian sounded flustered. "I've never personally seen one of those. Not like this."

"A single Reaper is a nightmare," Samara said, quietly. "Just being near them, in contact with them, can make you hallucinate. You can hear things in your mind, and the end result is a madness. You look upon the Reapers as some sort of deity, and work to further their goals." Samara looked at the councilors, at the horrified looks in their faces. "The Reapers need to be stopped. At any cost."

The councilors looked at the military woman. The Twi'lek clearly looked upset. "Now, it's your turn. Just not in front of our guests. Garza."

Samara took the cue, stood, and walked toward the exit. Oteg jumped down to walk along side her. As they left, the Batarian tapped Samara on the shoulder. His four eyes bored into hers. "I will not forgive this. Three hundred thousand Batarians died for your Commander's lies and betrayals."

Samara took a deep breath. She could feel Oteg's grip on her hand. There was no passion... "Justicars do not lie, Captain." she told him, turning and walking back toward the exit of the government building.

* * *

><p>Grunt looked up in his cage as two of the green, pig like humans came toward the cells. A third, actual human, had the prisoners covered with a rifle. He went for the furred one.<p>

The furred one gave a howl that was nothing like Grunt had ever heard before. He stood, putting his hands casually behind his head, walking calmly for the exit.

A minute later, the two greenskins returned for another. This time, Grunt's cage was opened, and he was escorted, firmly, to the arena preparation room. The furred one was not there.

He was excited for the coming combat. There was some feelings of anger, since this combat was not real. However, he had decided there was purpose, if not the way his battlemaster wanted. He could prove Krogan superior to all comers. He retrieved the rifle he had used before, the side arm as a back up weapon. He would prove this to any who would bear witness.

The door opened to the arena. There were barriers this time. The arena had been set up with cover in mind. On the far side, he could make out the furred one, he held something that resembled a large crossbow in his powerful arms.

What. He was to be fighting a fellow combatant?

Grunt strode forward, then plastered himself behind cover. The crossbow was an energy weapon, and the furred thing was firing at him.

There was no glory in this. A thought struck him. There was still a way to find glory. He stood, drawing the rifle off his back, holding it in front of him. He dropped it to the ground below.

The furred one looked at him. He thought it looked curious. It definitely had stopped firing.

He pounded his right fist into his open palm three times.

The furred creature let out a roar, threw its crossbow on the ground, and charged Grunt.

Grunt released his only blood furious roar and charged to meet him.

The initial impact went Grunt's way. His armored forehead was built for such charges, and the furred creature's body was not designed to take it. Grunt gave him credit, though. He shook himself and grabbed for Grunts leg, pulling him down.

The ensuing tussle went on for several minutes. Grunt was dimly aware of the massive cheering of the crowd.

He was much more aware of the limbs and grappling moves by the furry creature. It was physically stronger than Grunt. He was willing to give him that. Krogan, on the other hand, knew how to be hurt. Krogan knew how to be hurt with the best of them. Grunt was the perfect Krogan.

Punches, kicks, throws. The fighting was vicious, and Grunt loved every moment of it.

When he finally was forced to disengage, both Grunt and the furred creature lay on the sands. Beaten. In pain. Alive.

There was a tension in the air. They were waiting.

Grunt clambered to his feet, looking around. Was there to be another fight?

Instantly, there was an extremely loud cheer. This confused him. He could here a pained chuckling from next to him.

He looked down, the furred thing was laughing. He was in pain, but looked pleased. Grunt reached down and helped the furred thing to his feet. More cheers and applause.

The guards came to escort them back to their cells.

When they returned, both Grunt and the furred thing were held in some kind of awe. Both were left to heal. Grunt appreciated the quiet. Both Grunt and the furred one were given a kind of respect from the other inmates.

The boredom would come. First he needed to heal.

* * *

><p>Hyperspace took a lot longer than a true Mass Effect jump.<p>

A lot longer.

Rather than simply sleep the time away, Shepard spent some time updating the record of the journey so far. The she went around, as she liked to do, to talk to the members of the crew that were not specialists.

The morale of the crew was surprisingly positive. Mess Sergeant Gardner summed up their feelings as this, "Ma'am. Commander, I mean. You have pulled us out of hell. Twice now, you have rescued us from certain death. We will all go home. We trust that."

It was hard to not be cheered by that.

That meant her next stop was Mordin. Maybe he would have some kind of update.

Tali was in there with him, and they were busily dissecting the laser pistol they'd gotten from the Imperials on Hoth.

"Hm. Understood. Unusual crystal formation. Ability to focus energy to small point. Tremendous power capability."

"Agreed," Tali told him. "I'm not sure how it holds up over distance though."

"No cure for physics," Mordin agreed. "But new designs for superconductors." He paused. "Ultraconductors! Stores heat. Releases energy instantaneously. Almost no waste. Fascinating!"

Tali's faceplate bobbed up and down excitedly. "These ultraconductors could make our own FTL more efficient, let us travel further without having to discharge the cores."

"Is this a good time?" Shepard asked, grinning.

"What's up, Shepard?" Tali asked, turning towards her.

"I'm glad we got something out of that frozen ball of ice," Shepard told them. "Has there been any progress about figuring out how we got here?" she asked.

"Afraid not," Tali told her. "We really don't have anything to go on. All of EDI's sensors were offline during the incident. The only readings we have is a sudden surge of power that overloaded almost all electronics on the ship simultaneous."

"So much power. Could have been a weapon," Mordin said. "Weapon could hit in Mass Effect Field?" He paused. "Trap? Mass effect paths: linear. Follow same path each time."

Shepard frowned. "That would suggest the Batarians."

Mordin looked thoughtful for a second. "Maybe. Knew trap was set, but not which fish?" He frowned. "Unlikely. Idea tech seems beyond anything seen. Would suggest Reapers. Way to get us out of system?"

That was an unpleasant thought. Soverign had been the only known Reaper in civilized space...

"You don't think Object Rho was a trap for you?" Tali asked. "The reapers seem almost irrationally scared of you. That with us kicked out of the Milky Way, they'd have a free run on Earth."

"I'm just one soldier. The Normandy's more special than I am."

Tali and Mordin exchanged a look.

"She actually believes that," Tali said.

Mordin smirked. "Consider: Personal acquaintance with Quarrian Admiralty board. Spectre, known by council. Personal friend of strongest Krogan Warlord. Initiated cordial contact with Geth Collective!" Mordin snorted. "Just one soldier. Hmph."

"Well," Shepard said, blushing slightly. "When you put it down like that."

"Took down Saren, took down Collectors. Things come in threes."

Shepard laughed. She had to. "Ok! Ok! I get it. The Reapers want me. Personally."

"And the Ultraconductors."

It appeared Mordin and Tali were chomping at the bit to go back to their research, so she let them on it.

"I'll let you work."

"Of course," Mordin told her. "Will be here if you need me."

Her next stop was the armory.

She passed the comm room, and stood in the doorway. She could see Jacob and Kelly standing in front of a target. It was a holographic copy of a collector. EDI's work, probably.

Shepard watched, as Jacob moved Kelly's hands slowly. The yeoman's body was still trembling. She could almost see the fear in her eyes. As Shepard watched, Kelly's entire body tensed and she fired five shots from the Pistol into the target wall. EDI helpfully marked where the bullets had struck with red highlights.

Shepard imagined it to be therapeutic. Shooter style games, some featuring actual guns, had been popular for centuries. It was considered a reasonable way to burn off anger. The military had even commissioned some simulations that included player interactions as a way to train young officers how to diffuse touchy simulations. And how to make sure they had cover when such negotiations went badly, but there you had it.

The technique was good, Kelly had too good of a teacher for it to be anything else. She took a deep breath, still holding it in her hand. After a few seconds, she removed the thermal clip, putting the now unloaded gun on the table to her side.

Only when she had done had all that, did she notice Shepard standing to the side. She froze momentarily, giving the holographic target a nervous glance.

Shepard walked fully into the room, nodding at the pistol. "First rule of gun safety. The weapon is always loaded. Even if you know it is unloaded." She pointed at the pistol, with the empty thermal clip holder. That is the only time a weapon is unloaded, when you do it yourself.

Kelly nodded. "I told you someone was watching us," she told Jacob quietly.

She walked over, and looked at the hologram. The clustering was passable, maybe even good. That wasn't really the point though."You're still seeing them, aren't you?" Shepard asked. It was a guess, but an educated guess.

Kelly flinched and closed her eyes. Shepard had apparently struck a nerve.

Jacob winced, and put his hand on Kelly's shoulder to reassure her.

Shepard felt uncomfortable, and looked around.

"I do. Still do. Not knowing their names. Just their faces. I was taught that one million was a statistic, but I see one million faces, all crying for help. Then melting away," Kelly said. She looked up, making eye contact. "One of those faces is my own. It's only been worse since we've come here. I swear they are trying to tell me something. That sounds crazy, doesn't it? I'm trying to tell myself something?"  
>Shepard stared at her. The collector base was Reaper technology. "You haven't been hearing any other kinds of voices, have you?" she asked, unable to keep the worry out of her voice.<p>

"I... I don't think I've started being indoctrinated," she replied, though her eyes were wide. "But, how could I even tell? I'm not seeing anything, I'm not hearing voices. Just that one repeated dream."

"I don't know," admitted Shepard. "I'd been knocked out for days near Object Rho, a Reaper artifact that had clearly indoctrinated the rest of that Science Team. I think I'm ok. I've not seen anything either." Even as she said that, she had the sudden feeling of being watched.

"I'm going to have to ask you to stop," Jacob put in. "You both are give me the creeps."

She pushed past that. "The important question is, does this help?

Kelly nodded.

"I was thinking of what you said. Words are going to be important in fighting the Reapers. Our galaxy is filled with diverging interests. It is going to take words to get them all moving in the same direction."

"Words can't protect people from the Reapers," Kelly said in a small voice. "They cannot be explained, they cannot be reasoned with. That's what you keep saying. I don't want to do this. I have to."

Shepard nodded. "If you are sure. Have you tried anything other than a pistol yet? She asked.

"Not yet," Jacob told her. "I wanted her to establish at least a reasonable accuracy with the pistol first." He looked over to the holographic Collector. "I'd say that covers it."

Shepard looked at Kelly. She didn't want an impersonal weapon that dealt rapid death, she wasn't sure if she could handle it. It took a good amount of training to use a sniper rifle.

"I'd say so," Shepard agreed. "Let's see if she can handle a shotgun. Short range compared to the others, but it's the best way of discouraging a husk from gnawing on one's face." She turned back to Kelly. "I'll stay, help you practice."

She would tell Kasumi to stop spying on Jacob later.

* * *

><p>Jack still held onto her light stick. Darth had either forgotten to take it from her, or considered her to broken to matter.<p>

He was about to get a final lesson on that score.

As soon as she'd closed the door behind her she struck, drawing on that primal well of energy that she had been taught to use. She poured her fear, that fear of what was to become of the kids into that lightning. It flashed through the air with a purple tint, arcing its way toward Darth.

Darth must have felt it coming, for he rolled out of the way exactly as she started firing. He stared at her with his red pinprick eyes. His own light stick extended into life with a steady hum.

"That was a mistake," he told her. His voice was flat and emotionless, masking the tranquil fury she could feel inside the words. It reminded her of an Elcor. A very upset Elcor that she had just failed to take by surprise.

He leaped towards her, slashing down the air. With an instinct she didn't fully understand, Jack's extended her light sword, parrying the blade, forcing Darth to land awkwardly. The swords did not cut through each other, and gave off grating sparks, the heat threatening to overwhelm her.

He licked at the air, snake like, and stared at her again. "You still fear. It is even stronger now."

"I found something better to fear than you," Jack snarled, and slammed him with biotics. He flew backward the few feet it took for him to hit a wall. She charged, fully intent on putting an end to him with a single stab to the heart he might or might not have.

He dodged again, and lightning flew towards Jack.

Jack responded in kind, and red and purple lightning danced in the middle of the room in a sickeningly beautiful spectrum of death.

Hatred and disgust poured from both of them in waves. "Arrogant little girl. You will not live to respect your betters."

Jack did not respond. The mental image of the grey eyes had intruded on her vision. They were begging for help. It was time to deliver. "Come get some, then," she told him.

Enraged further, he leaped again, moving faster than Jack had seen anyone move. But she had felt it, again, on some instinctual level she did had tapped into. She spun, almost in place, elegantly avoiding Darth's laser blade. Her own narrowly missed passing through his leg.

He tumbled to the ground, and Jack pounced, her hands grappling his robes. She focused on the pain of Pragia, of the Cerberus "training", of the torture Darth inflicted on her, the future pain they would inflict on children, and she redirected it all towards him.

He screamed in mortal pain, convulsing on the ground.

As soon as the lightning stopped, Jack burned through his back with her light sword, piercing his chest. The galaxy would be a cleaner place without this filth.

With a hiss, his light stick fell from hand, extinguishing itself. Jack picked it up without a second thought, tucking both of them into her belt, the metal cool against her skin.

She had to act quickly. She pushed through the door into his personal chamber. She wanted to loot the place, but she did not have time for that. Her eyes lit on a familiar metal figure. "You. Geth," said.

"You? Here? Where is..." it said. The silver robotic eyes lit up, focused on Jack.

Jack fists began to glow with biotic energy, and it fell silent.

"He's dead. You work for me now," Jack said, her tone still simmering. "Or I compress you into a computer disk."

The robot's eyes brightened momentarily. "Ye... yes. Mistress," it simpered.

"Does Darth still have access to that personal ship he picked me up in?"

"I.." it sounded confused. "Rael? Yes."

"Retrieve anything needed to access it. And my shotgun, if it's still here" Jack ordered. "Then follow me."

"I... I get in by interfacing with the door directly."

Jack shot it a look that spoke volumes. It silenced its circuits, and went to a drawer. Opening it, it retrieved Jack's shotgun silently, handing it over to Jack meekly and obediently followed her. It looked at the mess that was Darth Rael and kept moving.

The children were still in the entrance corridor. The one bald one with the pale white skin looked up a Jack, cringing.

Jack wanted to say something comforting, as weird as that felt to her. She could feel the child's fear, and it was almost palpable. Jack crouched, and met the child's eyes with her own. "It's going to be ok. Going to get you out of here."

The child flinched again, clearly expecting Jack to strike her. When Jack didn't, she stared back up at her a sign of incomprehension on her face.

Jack frowned. Fine. "Tell those kids that they're coming with us. Hope you can move quick."

The robot's eyelights flashed again, and it did as it was ordered. The children looked up to her, a mixture of fear and curiosity, mostly fear.

"Alright. Let's go. Before anyone realizes we're not sticking around."

It always kind of amazed Jack how much you could get away with if you looked like you knew exactly what you were doing. They made it through to the spaceport without anyone so much as batting an eye.

That came to an end as the robot was accessing the ship's hangar. Jack threw up a personal barrier, pulled out her shotgun and knelt to steady her aim. "Get those kids in the ship and get ready to take off!" she ordered.

There were screams of terror, she was used to those. She sighted down towards the entrance to the starport and fired. The shotgun spit out mass effect sped death towards the two uniforms, who were forced to seek cover. An energy blast tickled her barrier, and Jack grunted from the effort in keeping it from collapsing.

She felt something behind her. One of the kids, the blue skined one with the red eyes and huddled against her, using her as cover against the energy blasts. "Blast it kid, go!" The rest of them were on board, so Jack did the only thing she could do. She focused her biotics in creating a bigger barrier, grabbed the kid, and took off to the ship.

She heard reinforcements coming, the unmistakable sound of energy swords powering up. "Shut the door and get us out of here!"

Jack's luck held. They'd gotten out of there fast enough that any starship defenses they had here weren't yet online, or at least didn't know to fire at them.

"Get us out of the atmosphere and jump us out of here, robot!" she shouted.

The acceleration threw her against a bulkhead. The children had found seats and were holding on for dear life. Each one of them had a face masked by pure terror.

Jack made her way up to the front of the ship, where the droid had parked itself in a pilot's chair. Joker he wasn't.

"Where do you want to go today, mistress?" it asked her.

Jack was fully aware they'd be scrambling ships to follow her. Any group willing to train followers by torturing them would not hesitate to fire on a ship full of kids. "Anywhere!" Jack shouted. Just get us out of here!"

Jack scanned the sky for signs of a mass relay, but was shocked to see stars lengthen to starlines, replaced by a mottled starscape. She had to grip hard onto the chair in front of her to keep her from being thrown again.

The robot must have seen Jack's surprised look. "Master Rael had a few emergency hyperspace routes programmed in case he had to get off planet quickly."

Actually, Jack wanted to ask how they hit this kind of faster than light speed without a Mass relay. But she wasn't choosey. She was safe, for the moment. So were the kids. When she woke up, she'd figure out what to do next. Right now, all she wanted was a place to sleep.


	10. Chapter 10

I awoke in the Normandy's medical bay. I could feel the IV still attached to my wrist. I wanted to roll over, get more comfortable, and go back to sleep. Instead, after a few moments, I struggled to sit upright.

Dr. Chakwas looked over at me. I looked at her face for any sign of hope, but found it unreadable. She walked over to me and offered my a glass of water. I took it in my free hand and drank. It felt cool against my burning throat. I handed the glass back to her.

There was silence for a moment.

"How are you feeling?" she asked, delicately.

I wanted to answer her. Make that, I tried to answer her.

No words came out.

I swallowed, shutting my eyes tightly for a few moments.

I looked over at the side of the table, the pieces of metal that were my artificial voice box were still sitting there. It took me a few minutes to get over the bitter disappointment.

I hadn't been born mute, but a freak accident had severely damaged my vocal cords when I was seven. I had needed an electronic aid to speak since then.

After the Normandy's electrical surge, I hadn't been able to speak. Dr. Chakwas finally had the time, during the hyper-jump to Nar Shadda, to put me under the knife and take a look.

It was clear the surgery had not been a success.

"I'm sorry, Kevin," she told me. She sighed. "I just don't have the parts to replace the voice box. I've asked Tali to try to jury-rig something, but we don't have much to spare. Anything that could have connected to the system already there. It's not just a speaker, after all."

Which meant the system that overloaded inside of me was going to be staying broken.

In a time with so many alien languages, so much translation going on, sign language hadn't caught on. Not being able to communicate with my fellow crew, my friends, hurt. You'd think I'd have been used to it by now.

I'm not.

There was a knock on the door. Chakwas looked at me apologetically and went to answer it. The commander walked in, looking directly at me.

"How did it go?" she asked. Her voice was quiet, maybe she didn't know I was awake.

Dr. Chakwas told her the same thing she told me, advising Shepard that I'd awoken.

Shepard walked over to me. "Kevin," she told me. "If I can find anything on Nar Shadda, I'll bring it back for you."

I know it's been mentioned here before, but I need to mention it again. There are reasons we followed Commander Shepard into almost certain death. She had a personal interest in each and everyone of us.

With her here, of course, we also felt that death was never certain.

She offered this without me asking. She offered this without me being able to ask.

I vowed to stop giving her such a hard time when I was acting as ship's journalist.

"We're here," she told me. "I want you to be ready to take down Grunt's story as soon as he comes aboard."

I nodded. I'd be ready by then.

* * *

><p>The docking was uneventful. Captain Dar'co's word had been good. They got a private – independent – docking station. Joker guided the Normany down to his smooth landing. Shepard was ready to begin hunting down the fighting pits of Ko'Pa the Hutt.<p>

The mission was getting off to a suspiciously good start.

She'd called upon Mordin and Jacob to accompany her for this particular mission. Mordin for his xeno-medical knowledge, even though he almost had to be dragged out of his lab. Jacob to counterbalance Mordin's tech skills with biotics. She would really liked to have Samara or Jack with her, but with the Asari gone and Jack MIA, she didn't have much choice.

The first step out of the Docking Bay almost blinded her. The entire causeway was covered with different colored neon lights, advertising just about any product imaginable. The most prominent were of shapely Twi-Lek forms. Both genders were represented, the females more than the males.

"Reminds me of Vegas," Jacob told them. "Not the mostly civilized part near the strip. The other part. The one the brochures don't mention. There's..." Jacob gasped as Shepard elbowed him. "Sorry. Went there after I made Lieutenant."

"Understanding now, Shepard. Won't be distracted," Mordin said. He reached into his lab coat and retrieved a rather ridiculous looking pair of sunglasses. "Sorry. Very bright."

From what they'd learned on the extranet, Ko'Pa's arena was a good distance from the docks. They had a bit of spending money from people they'd met on Hoth. While it wasn't a lot, it was enough for them to get a taxi ride to the 'Lower District'.

There was less neon there, but still not much in the way of natural light. The combination of the two produced a glare that was hard on the eyes. Lights on the Normandy were designed to be natural looking. This was anything but.

There were no fewer people down here in the lower district, if there were any tourists, they were well disguised. The population broke down into three categories. There were the heavily armed ones, probably gang members. There were others, armed with 'just' individual weapons like rifles. That made them civilians. The only unarmed people were the beggars. There were a number of those as well.

They made only light conversation. Shepard was confident they were well enough armed to avoid any gang confrontations as long as they looked like they belonged. The idea worked well enough. Nobody accosted them as they made it to the arena itself.

They circled around. There were several entrances, most of them closed and sealed off. One of them had guards in front. That looked like a good place to start. Shepard strode past them before they could react, and pounded on the door.

The guards, green pig looking things, unshouldered old fashioned battle axes. (Gamorreans was EDI's identification) Maybe not quite old fashioned, Shepard could hear the weapons humming. "I'm going to speak to your boss," Shepard told them. Two seconds later, EDI's voice echoed from a new portable speaker Tali had rigged.

They looked at each other in confusion. They were the epitome of dumb muscle. After a few minutes, Shepard could hear movement from inside the door. The door opened to a heavily armed and armored Twi'lek. He took in Shepard through narrow eyes.

He was obviously not impressed. "What do you want?" he asked. His otherwise smooth voice had a guttural edge to it. It made Shepard wonder if he smoked.

"I'm looking for someone," Shepard told him. "I..."

"You're a merc. Go find a war to fight in," the Twi'lek interrupted.

Shepard shoved herself against the door before he could close it. The guards reacted almost instantly, their vibrating axes up against Shepard's throat. She backed up, but only a half step. It was just enough room to allow Jacob to loudly take off the safety of his assault rifle.

"The person I'm looking for is here," said Shepard. Her tone was cool. The last time her voice was this frozen was when she was dealing with Tali's treason trial. "I'm not leaving without him. You can give him up peacefully, or watch as I bring this whole place down around your corpse"

The Twi'lek visibly blinked. "You're bluffing," he stammered.

Shepard decided this was a challenge best answered with the dramatic sound of her mantis. The sniper rifle had such a sound of... finality to it.

The Twi'lek froze, staring at Shepard. It was apparently not use to receiving directed threats. It worked his throat, trying to speak for several seconds before finally being able to spit anything more out. He swallowed, appearing to mentally calculate the odds he could get the door closed and barred before he got shot.

He pushed the door open instead.

"An extremely intelligent decision," commented Mordin.

Shepard and Jacob reset the safeties of their respective weapons, and followed the Twi'lek into the complex. It looked almost exactly like a human sporting complex's concourse. There was a sign for "Twin Tailed Treats". This was apparently fried dough, in the shape of of a Twi'lek's lekku. After passing the restrooms, there was another sign for "Gamorean Grub." Shepard tried not to think about this, according to EDI Gamorreans ate almost anything meat like. There was also what appeared to be a Souvenir Shop: "Wookie Wonders".

Shepard rolled her eyes and kept going. The Twi'lek was talking into a radio."

"Hmph," Mordin said. "Possibility of trap? No. Unlikely. Unaware of arrival. Unless..." he shook his head. "No. Too many easier ways. Could have trap for just such occasion. Possibly. Still. Should be careful, Shepard."

"I don't think he'll simply kill us, Mordin," She told him. "But I'm always careful."

After a few hundred meters, they arrived at what appeared to be an elevator. "Offices are up," The Twi'Lek said. "You're lucky. Ko'Pa is waiting for you."

"That's lucky?" Jacob mumbled.

Shepard shushed him.

The office they arrived in was a study in contrasts. It was, in all aspects, a very nice office. It was a bit larger than it would have needed to be for a standard sized humanoid. Ko'pa was hardly an average humanoid, of course. Shepard had seen pictures of him, and of Hutts in general, but she could honestly say that she could not have been prepared for exactly how slimy they looked and smelled.

Mordin, naturally, was fascinated .He spoke rapidly and Shepard had to fight to keep her focus on the Hutt.

It spoke in a slow, deep voice. The translation was fed into Shepard's earpiece. "What are you doing here, human?"

Jacob coughed, a loud hacking noise.

"I'm here for your slaves, Hutt," Shepard told him. "Freedom is the right of all sentient beings." she paused. "And Grunt is one of mine... I don't leave mine behind."

The Hutt considered her, and his large bulbous eyes drifted over the three of them. Then released as series of low guttural noises. It took Shepard a second to realize he was laughing. "These? Slaves?" He laughed again. "These are the refuse. Scum. People that broke the rules of Nar Shadda..."

Shepard gave him a cold look. "Don't lie to me, Hutt. Grunt was kidnapped from Talos. I don't know how he got here, but I know it wasn't by breaking any rules. I'll tell you what I told your lackey," Shepard said. Her voice was dangerously quiet. "Release your slaves, and I'll leave peacefully. Otherwise, this place is going to come down around your ears." Shepard coughed, she'd started to feel slightly woozy.

"Worthless threats. Nar Shadda belongs to the Hutts," he looked at Shepard, his form was starting to sway in her vision. "And you belong to me. Huh. Huh. Huh."

Shepard felt her her knees weaken. When The Illusive Man had rebuilt her, he had 'improved' a good deal a part of her. She was probably the only member of the human race that could use the Geth's Black Widow without it snapping her arm off.

She still breathed oxygen. Jacob slumped beside her.

Her final look at the Hutt was one of absolute fury.

Then it went dark.

The first thing Shepard saw when she awoke Mordin, leaning over her body, checking that she was OK. She struggled to sit up.

A cursory check revealed her sniper rifle was gone, the speaker was gone, her omni-tool was gone. She still had her earpiece.

Mordin provided her a small leather pouch. "Waterskin," he said, rolling his eyes. "Barbaric species. Haven't invented glasses."

"Or they're afraid we'll turn them into prison shanks," Jacob said, dryly.

"Shepard!" interrupted a familiar, deep, and welcome voice. There was a second question, spoken in the Krogan language.

"Yes, Grunt," she said, making a guess at the tone, and rose to her feet. "I'm awake," She rose to her feet, considering her surroundings.

"Honestly, I'm not sure what you expected to happen by threatening him," Jacob said.

Shepard shrugged. "Actually, I expected about this," she admitted. "It's why I brought the mantis, and not the widow. Mordin?" she asked.

Mordin smiled. He spoke in English. "Dumb brutes: Difference between Incinerate tech and Medical supplies: Vast."

"I can't believe they allowed to you to keep it," Jacob said, startled.

Mordin shrugged. "Told them: Required for Salarian survival." He mouth split in a wide grin. "True statement. Staying here: Death from boredom."

Shepard took a deep breath, and rose to her feet. She looked at the metal gate that separated her from the rest of the prison area. It wasn't anything she recognized. It was deeply set and looked strong. Shepard continued to breath deeply, and glanced at Mordin. "Don't suppose you have anything that could flash freeze the bars," Shepard asked.

Mordin shook his head.

"If this doesn't work, we'll see if your incinerate tech can melt them," she told him. She planted her feet on the stone floor, placed one hand each on adjacent bars, and pressed her entire weight in the gap. The entire prison was staring at her, awestruck. Her not-quite-human muscles burning from the strain, the metal bent slowly, surely. After a few minutes, there was a larger gap between the bars.

Mordin mutely passed her back the waterskin, and Shepard emptied the rest of it.

"Guards alerted: Probable. No. Merely possible. Cameras: No direct line of sigh," Mordin told her. "Haste still recommended."  
>Shepard nodded, and after another minute, resumed her assault on the bars. After another few minutes, she fell back to the floor, spent. Mordin squeezed his way out through the gap, and looked around quickly.<p>

Grunt was shouting at him, pointing to a small cupboard near a small door. Mordin sprinted to it, and considered it for a moment. He mumbled something to himself. He tapped something, and a short burst of flame scorched the cupboard. Mordin stared again, then nodded to himself. He opened it, and withdrew a key ring.

The effect was immediate, a loud cheer went out through the prison. Shepard made a quieting down gesture with her hands and she stared meaningfully at the camera. She was ignored. Every single prisoner in the jail continued to call toward Dr. Solus, clearly begging for their freedom.

There came a short rumbling growl. A large furred creature (Shepard had seen something like it before, but could not remember the name) in a cage near a much larger door stood. He looked around the entire prison. He met the eyes of every single prisoner and as they did, the other prisoners slowly silenced.

Mordin hurried back over to Shepard's cell, unlocking it. "Planned this, didn't you?" accused Mordin.

Shepard smiled her response. "Get the others," she told him. She pointed at Jacob, Grunt, then at the large furred creature that had taken control. "Start with them."

Mordin nodded, and began quickly moving to the cells. Just as Grunt had reached her, Shepard could hear an alarm sounding, probably from nearby. "Getting in is half the fun," Shepard mumbled.

Grunt said something to her in Krogan, slapping her on the back.

Shepard staggered forward a moment, then tapped her ear. "I'm sorry, Grunt," she told him. "Lost my earpiece."

Grunt shrugged. "I can speak English." He snorted. "Don't know about the rest of these."

"Can't speak Krogan anyway," Jacob quipped. "You ready to make a run for it?" he asked. "It's going to be a hot time. I've got my biotics, and Mordin has some of his tech, but if they come with guns..."

"I know," Shepard said. "Not much we can do about it."

After a few minutes, every single prisoner had been released. The Wookie (that was it), made another growling noise charge of the prisoners. He pointed at the larger of the two doors.

"No," Mordin told him. "Exit: Other way."

The wookie was insistent.

"Shepard," Grunt said. "They keep weapons in there, for arena fights."

"Ah," Shepard mumbled. "That would do it."

Mordin moved over to unlock the larger door. He tried to lift it, and grimaced. "Problematic! Mechanical door. No power: no support."

It took the physical strength of the wookie, Shepard, and Grunt together to lift the gate even partially open. Jacob and Mordin ducked under the gate, and tossed out all sorts of goodies, an assault rifle, some sort of large axe, what appeared to be a crossbow.

"Epitome of laziness: Complete genre blindness," Mordin complained from the other side. "No stories of slave results?"

The wookie growled questioningly.

"Just as well," Shepard said, snorting. "If they'd banned weapons we'd be forced to rely on Tae Kwan Do, and that wouldn't end well."

There was the sound of a moments worth of flame. Then small packs, like battery packs, flew under the gate.

"We're coming out," called Jacob unnecessarily. He and Mordin reappeared under the gate.

"On three," Shepard said. Mordin helpfully held up three fingers. "One. Two. Three!"

The wookie evidently got the idea. The gate crashed to the floor without any fingers being squashed. The wookie immediately picked up both one of the packs, as well as the crossbow.

Grunt took something that looked like a shotgun, Shepard something that looked like an assault rifle. It took some fumbling (and some help from the Wookie) before they managed to get the charge packs into the weapons.

What that meant was their host, Ko'Pa, had had the chance to set up a defense..

This defense came in the form of a large number of things that looked like Loki Mechs. "Mordin!" Shepard yelled over the din, "keep the unarmed out of line of fire!"

"Copy, Shepard! Preferable to holding the line!"

The next few minutes were a blur to the commander. She had direct memories of the wookie having a bad habit of aiming for the head. She had thought everyone would know center of mass was the easier shot to hit. Granted, knocking out the optics was a kill shot, but it was a much smaller target.

Grunt... Grunt was _angry. _He didn't abandon his shotgun, but he did use it in a less orthodox way than Shepard was using her assault rifle. On the other hand, when propelled by an angry krogan, the chest of a Loki was no match to whatever these shotguns were made of. He was going to have a ton of nasty energy burns for Dr. Chakwas and Mordin to look at.

Jacob was throwing around mechs like ragdolls,

Shepard hadn't used an assault rifle in a while, she much preferred a sniper rifle. On the other hand, this assault rifle had next to no kick. The energy being fired didn't seem quite as powerful as the mass effect driven slugs in a standard gun. More than enough here.

"Caution!" Mordin shouted. "Rear attackers!" The sound of flames roared. "Nevermind! Flammable." He paused. "Or inflammable! Forget which. Doesn't matter!" He never got tired of that joke.

Shepard looked around as they climbed a stairwell, emerging into the concourse.

Another swarm of of mechs met the team, but they were not to be denied. Following the Krogan's example, she didn't give the mechs a chance to aim, and was even more aggressive.

She kept expecting there to be some kind of large mech, or actual guards to block their final escape. But they kept fighting around the concourse until they found a "Fire Exit". The wookie went first, Mordin holding the door open.

The all clear sign, apparently, was universal. As soon as the wookie waved a big furry paw at them, the other freed prisoners took off in all directions from the Arena. Why there were no guards, Shepard had no idea. Maybe not even the Hutt would dare fire on unarmed people in public, and it was public. There was a number of people milling around, curiously watching the mass breakout.

One of those people was Miranda. She, quietly, led them away toward the taxi stand. "We were nervous when EDI lost connection, but there wasn't much we could do about it. At least... have we picked up a spare?"

The wookie was walking behind them, looking all the world like he was part of their little crew. Shepard tried to dissuade him, but he simply shook her head, then pointed at her and Grunt,

"I'll speak for him, Shepard," Grunt told her. "He's a valiant fighter, and extremely intelligent."

Shepard winced. Exactly what would Joker say?

* * *

><p>"You know, what I really thought this ship was missing?" Joker asked as they reboarded the Normandy.<p>

Shepard gave him a dark look.

"I thought it was missing our very own walking feather duster," Joker continued, completely unabashed. "It'll mean a lot less work for the crew if you just have him wipe..."

"Joker?" EDI's voice came from the console. "Would you like me to display what upset wookies have been known to do? They can shatter the bones of healthy humans. And they've been known to..."  
>"Thanks, EDI," Joker said. He turned back to meet Shepard's disapproving expression. "Jacob's with him in the conference room."<p>

"Thank you Joker. EDI, tell him I'll be there momentarily. I've got something for Dr. Chakwas."

"Shepard," EDI continued, "We received two messages while you were planetside. The first was routed through the Imperials, but it's from 'The Three'. On Talos. It is only video "

"All right? and the other?"

"From the Republic," EDI began.

"Like we're going to pay any attention to them, after the way they treated us and the Normandy," Joker said, hotly.

"It is not from General Garza. I think you're going to want to see this."

Shepard raised an eyebrow in curiosity. "All right,"

The first message was simply a series of pictures of an abandoned village on Talos. An abandoned village. And a single husk. Shepard winced. The reapers had followed her here.

The second message was from a planet known as Alderaan. Husks had apparently appeared_ in _small squads, with what appeared to be heretical geth. It almost appeared they were looking for something.

"They've had a couple of small firefights," came the report. "But only to cover their retreat. The senate has ordered Garza to keep her hands off, and that you are to be given full authority to do whatever investigation you need."

* * *

><p>A knock came on Samara's door. She acknowledged it, and Master Oteg walked in. "I wish we had the opportunity to help everyone that asked for our help. Especially during this war." He began, looking into Samara's eyes. "This one they are willing to make time for. There's a trafficker. A Zabrak by the name of Danq. The council has received information on his whereabouts, and wants you and Jedi Guardian Cetra to track him down."<p>

"What does he traffic?" Samara asked. She'd seen her share of drug dealers.

"Children," Oteg replied. Samara felt her blood run cold. "He's got a knack for identifying force sensitive children. He kidnaps them, and he sells them to the Sith."

Samara stared at him. With all that she'd been through, all that she heard about, the depravity of some people never failed to shock her.

"Absolutely," the Asari said. She rose to her feet, her voice remaining even, calm. "When do we leave?"


	11. Chapter 11

"So you're our guest for this mission!" said the medic known as 'Doc' as Samara stepped aboard. He held out his hand, and Samara gave it a quick, casual, shake. "Hope you'll be better company than Lord Scourge, at any rate. He's an actual Sith. I'm honestly not sure why he's with us. No. I've had it explained, I just don't know why Cetra puts up with him."

A man with a bright red face poked his head out of a nearby room, scowled at Samara, and disappeared again.

Samara raised her eyebrow.

"He's a charmer, isn't he?" Doc said, rolling his eyes. "Cetra's waiting for you in the cockpit. Follow me."

The ship wasn't that much bigger than Jedi Nixim's.

Cetra was a human brown eyed human with short cut brown hair. He gave Samara the once over. "I have one padawan promoted, and I get assigned another one," He gave a dry chuckle. "Still, easier to have help and not need it than to want it and not have it."

Samara nodded.

He pounded the co-pilot's seat. "I'll get us airborne, and you can tell me about yourself."

"Surely," Samara replied, "The council has told you about me."

Cetra shrugged. "I'd like to hear about you from you."

The exchange of stories was reasonably pleasant. Samara had usually embraced meditation as the way to pass time. But the story of the plague was interesting. The idea of possession: that people might not be in control of their own actions, had terrified Samara since she'd learned about the Reapers.

During the story, a young woman came in, placing her hand on the Jedi's shoulder.

Samara could almost see him tense, then he relaxed as they made eye contact. She looked up at the woman. She was dressed in the robes of the Jedi. "Greetings, I guess you would be Cetra's former padawan."

The hand was withdrawn almost immediately. "Oh. I'm sorry Cetra, I didn't know we had a guest on board."

"Kira, this is the Asari, Samara. She is both a Jedi Padawan and an Asari Justicar. Samara, you're right this is Jedi Knight Kira."

Samara considered them for a moment. She picked her words carefully, then said, "The Justicars believe that attachments only distract from one's purpose. It is an unforgiving lifestyle."

Kira looked like she'd been slapped. She swallowed uncomfortable, and backed away.

Cetra turned and took Kira's hand. "Love doesn't lead to the dark side. Passion can lead to rage and fear, and can be controlled... but passion is not the same thing as love. Controlling your passions while being in love... that's what they should teach you to beware. But love itself will save you... not condemn you," he told her.

"Deep," Samara replied. "But if it comes between choosing to save your partner and saving innocents, what will you choose?"

"I'm a Jedi, I know what the risks are, and I can take care of myself," Kira said, primly.

Samara met her eyes and shrugged. "Where are we going, anyway?" she asked Citra.

Kira cleared her throat.  
>Samara turned back to her.<p>

"What did you lose?"

Samara blinked once. Morinth's image flickered across her vision.

_There is no emotion, there is peace._

"I didn't lose anything. To be a Justicar is to sacrifice everything. It is no different than being a Jedi."

Kira flinched, then steadied."No. You lost something, something you didn't want to lose."

"I didn't lose anything. I sacrificed for my redemption."

Kira paused, apparently convinced Samara was hiding something. "I don't think that level of detachment is healthy..." she frowned, and tried again."We still live in the universe. The Force connects us to all living things. We shouldn't deny that."

Silence flooded the cockpit for several seconds.

"Ord Mantell," Cetra said. "It's a warzone. After the treaty of Coruscant, Ord Mantell stayed loyal to the Republic. A good number of people thought the government made a mistake, and started a revolt. The civil war has gone on for some time." He shook his head. "We're all mortal, can't people see we're on the same side?"

Ord Mantell would have reminded Samara of many Asari colonies. It was built up, but not enough that there wasn't still plent of room for agriculture. At least, it wouldn't have if there wasn't signs of anarchy: Boarded up shop windows, everyone looking worried. There was a feel of panic in the streets, and it made Samara uncomfortable.

"How do we find Danq?" Samara asked. "Waiting for him to come to us seems unlikely."

"We investigate. Jedi usually do house to house testing themselves. If a candidate is worthy, and the parents agree, we take them for further testing at the Jedi Temple.

"They're taken off planet? Away from their family?" Samara asked.

Cetra looked uncomfortable.

"Sorry. Continue," Samara told him.

"We're going to canvas the capital. It's the only city with a starport, so it's the most likely place to find him. A starship setting down anywhere else would be pretty obvious. Ord Mandell still gets enough starship traffic that its easy enough to slip in and out.

"Fair enough, let's start."

* * *

><p>"...think you did a pretty good job down there, Krosurra." Jacob said, smiling.<p>

The wookie rumbled at him. The sounds came to Shepard like a weird mix of Earthen primate noises before the translation came through. "I just appreciate getting out of there."

Jacob nodded. "Can't blame," he noticed the Commander's entrance. "Shepard."

She gave a curt nod. "Jacob, and Krosurra?"

The wookie gave a rumble of acknowledgment. "It's a good enough Basic translation," he told her.

"I've read up on your culture," Shepard told him. "Before you say a word to me, I want to tell you that there is no possible way I'm going to accept a life debt from you.

The Wookiee let out a rumble of discontentment.

Shepard forestalled him.

"I mean it. I was getting my own people out, and I wasn't going to leave anyone behind." She met his eyes. "You do not owe me."

The Wookie's eyes narrowed slightly, then he gave a grin that made Shepard feel like she had just made a drastic mistake. "I understand. But it is to 'Grunt' that I owe my life. He had the right to take it in Ko'Pa's arena, but came to the solution that allowed us both to walk away.

Jacob was clearly fighting the urge to crack up laughing.

Shepard gave him a frustrated look, and resisted throwing up her hands in frustration. "Well, you're here for a time, I guess. Jacob, can you show him to Samara's old quarters? I'm going to go drop this off with Chakwas, then see if anyone's got any ideas about what a Reaper could be looking for, and how to beat it to whatever it is."

"Aye aye, Commander," Jacob told her.

When Shepard posed Mordin that very question, he began to pace. This was, as Shepard had learned, a good sign. It meant the question was interesting enough that it attracted his full attention.

"Hm. Possible Reapers have been here before? Nononono... evidence of Galactic civilization goes on far too long to account for Reaper style civilization wipes." Mordin reached the end of his lab and turned on his heel. "Gormak-like husk unsuitable for long term use?" Mordin postulated. "Possible. Warzone: better place to find targets for reanimation."

Shepard, despite herself, blanched.

"Even Reaper needs resupply. Perhaps scavenging arms and ammunition for ground forces from battlegrounds?"

"Possibly," Shepard put in. "May be they're collecting weapons just like we are? They're looking for new technology?"

Mordin froze, one foot wavering almost comically in the air. "No! Nonononono." The foot wavered again, then it found the floor. "Better than that. Reapers **are** newtechnology. Like Saren, Like Saren!" he repeated. He spun on his heel, staring at Shepard in excitement. "Reaper hinting it could tip balance between Republic and Empire! Reaper: Not searching for anything. Reaper serving as _ally. _Indoctrinating!"

Shepard considered that. "That's a disturbing theory, and it makes a lot of sense. So it means the Reaper isn't looking for something, but its ally probably is. Which means... I may not have anything more to go on, but maybe someone else does." She smiled and nodded at Mordin. "Thank you."

"Anything else?"

"Not unless you've figured out how we got sent into this galaxy."

Mordin folded his fingers. "Hmph. Like trap theory. Explains Batarian pursuit, Reaper chaser." He frowned. "Or Reaper lead." He gazed off into the distance for a moment before snapping back into the present. "Either way."

"Alright. I'll ask Kelly hit our contacts in the Republic and the Empire. Then I think I'm going to take a nap. Thank you for your input."

Mordin waved her off. "Running experiment. Duplicating plasma state weapon. Harder than appearance, physics feeling violated."

"Haven't the locals already done that?"

"Being able to replicate: More valuable. Civilian applications. Toasting bread while slicing it!"

Shepard raised an eyebrow at Mordin then decided she really didn't want to know. "Good luck!"

"Here if you need me," Mordin assured her.

Shepard's first impression of Alderaan was that it was the most inviting planet she'd been to in a very long time. It kind of looked like Eden Prime. No environment trying to kill her, no hostile aliens.

It reminded her what was at stake with the Reapers. Which is why she was here. The Republic had called her here to investigate sightings of reaper forces. They were looking for something.

The Jedi Council had given her a pair of Jedi that had been last seen on Taris. The Republic added one member of their special forces. The Imperials, however, had refused to give her the time of day on any Sith that had gone missing.

Just made her job that much harder.

According to the report Legion put together, Alderaan was officially a neutral planet, but it itself was in the grips of the civil war. The appearance of another, foreign, party had thrown a monkey-wrench in the plans of the scheming families, especially with the warnings of the Three on Talos.

The presence of a second foreign power was going to make things even worse. There was still no sign of the Reaper itself. Perhaps this should have bothered her, Saren's ship looked nothing like anything from her Galaxy, yet until the battle for the Citadel, nobody had ever remembered seeing it.

"It's certainly a nice place," Kasumi told her.

"Does that mean you're going to finally put your hood down?" Miranda asked.

"What?" Kasumi asked, sounding vaguely offended, "And ruin my whole mystique? What do you think, Shep?"

Shepard had misgivings about bringing this exact paring, but she had the feeling that she was going to want a scout, and probably a thief. Miranda was the biotic balance. She would have asked Jacob, but she knew all too well what would happen if she put Kasumi and Jacob on the same away team.

"You're in the open, Kasumi," Shepard replied dryly. "You'd actually stand out less if you looked like a normal person."

"I'm so misunderstood," Kasumi said, in a overly tragic voice.

They headed out from the Normandy. A landspeeder was there, waiting to take them to House Organa. Once there, they were invited into the compound.

"Birds, Shep!" Kasumi said, listening, "I haven't heard birds for so long. Maybe I should get one for my room."

Shepard glanced at her and raised an eyebrow.

"Hey! If you can have a hamster, I can have a bird, right?"

"Feeding it comes out of your contract pay," Shepard told her. All she could see of the thief was her smile. After a moment, it widened. Sheppard narrowed her eyes. "My fish are fine."

Kasumi laughed.

The landspeeder arrived outside the Organa compound. A formally dressed guard assisted her from the landspeeder, bowed somewhat stiffly, and led the three through a maze of passages, ending in a well lit conference room, where they would meet their contact.

The contact was one Duke Charle Organa. He was a brown haired, weary looking soul. His finely groomed mustache didn't quite cover his friendly smile. He met each of their eyes, saying nothing, then turned back to Shepard.  
>"Welcome to Alderaan," the Duke said, bowing. "I understand your previous meeting with the Republic wasn't as smooth as it should have been. Garza got reamed for that, for the record. I hope you won't hold it against me."<p>

"Just so we're clear, your grace," Shepard replied, her voice even and firm. "I am not interested in your civil war. I am not interested in your galactic war. I am here to investigate a potential Reaper threat."

Duke Organa looked taken aback for a moment before recovering. "Of course," he said. "Dim the lights, please, then show the sightings." A holographc map of the area appeared on the table. A number of blue marks appeared on the map.

Shepard considered them. There was no true pattern with them. "We hypothesize that the Reaper may have allied with a person of power," Shepard said, "Someone more local to the area than we are, and that person might be looking for something."  
>Organa folded his fingers and rested his hands in his chin, staring at the map. "I... I honestly don't know. Alderaan has been part of Galactic civilization for so long, it's certainly possible someone hid something here. But if so, I have no idea what it might be. Revan herself could have been here and I wouldn't know it. We've seismic scans of the planet, of course. I'll pass those along with you."<p>

Shepard mentally ran through her conversation with Mordin. "According to the message we received from Republic command, you've seen droids and what I've described as husks. Are all husks you've seen Gormak?"

The Duke blinked. "I'm sorry, I don't understand the question."

"The only husks I've seen in person were human," Shepard told him. She was vaguely gratified to see him blanch. "The Gormak husks are a new and upsetting development. "Another theory is that the Reaper is scavenging, either bodies or equipment. Have there been any reports of human husks?"  
>"Not that I'm aware of," the Duke said. "But it's an excellent tip. Anything else?"<p>

Shepard thought. "No. We're going to take to shuttles and do fly overs and see if we can't find and take down on of their patrols, or at least try to figure out where they're coming from."  
>"That brings up one other good point. How did your Reaper get its troops here. The report for the Republic said it was a starship. Wouldn't we have seen it?"<p>

"I don't know. I've only encountered one of them before, and it tended to stay off the grid. I didn't actually see it until it attacked the Citadel."

"Alright. Now that your here, then, here's my suggestion. We get some airborne units, like your shuttles, and do a grid pattern..."

* * *

><p>Considering they had jumped into deep space with a cargo of kids, a mech... droid that was making itself useful with translation duties, Jack could have been worse off.<p>

Apparently, betrayal and paranoia ran high among the Sith. Darth apparently had a cache of supplies, hidden on some moon or other. The droid had handled the fuel. Jack had taken the food. It was enough to give everyone a meal, at least this once.

However, there wasn't enough food to keep everyone satiated forever, and Jack simply didn't know enough about where she was in order to know how to fix it. According to the droid, the entire area was claimed as property of the Sith Empire.

That sounded a lot like the Citadel's propaganda, she didn't think that one Empire could control the entire galaxy. Being on the run, she needed some place to hide, that wouldn't ask too many questions.

The only place that met that description seemed to be "Hutta", home planet of the Hutts. After a good hearty threat, she got the droid to set course and hit mass effect speeds.

Now to figure out why the grey eyed girl was still appearing in her dreams. She'd never put much into prophecy before. It annoyed her to have any kind of glimpse of the future. She didn't want to admit it scared it as well.

The kids were understandably nervous when she came in to see them. Jack couldn't blame them. They'd been taken away from their families into that horror school. Jack, at least, had had the advantage of never having met her parents.

What was it that Darth had repeated?

"_P__eace is a lie, there is only passion._ _Through passion, I gain strength._ _Through power, I gain victory._ _Through victory, my chains are broken._ _The Force shall free me._"

This had been true for her, hadn't it? Passion drawn from injustice had freed her from the paralysis of fear. She'd drawn on that passion to bring down her torturer and win freedom for herself, and for others.

_She had found something better to fear_.

She wanted the others to be stronger than that fear. She wanted to demonstrate she wasn't one that she needed to be scared of. But she had to break down the language barrier that was between them first. She rubbed at her eyes, just below the fringe of hair that was starting to come in. Not for the first time, she asked herself, "What would Shepard Do?" She had to let go of that. Shepard wasn't here.

Shepard had changed her, though. If she'd seen those kids before she'd been sent to Purgatory, she'd have ignored them. Shepard wouldn't have. She had valued every single member of that ship, even someone as messed up as Jack. To ignore them now would be to throw that experience away.

She reached into her belt, pulling out the two light swords. Lightsabers, the droid called them. She dropped them both to the floor. She ejected the thermal clip from her shotgun and set them down a bit more reverently.

She stepped to one side, leaving hear weapons beside her. She then sat down on the floor, meeting the eyes of each of her rescues in turn. She held out her hand, and cast her eyes back across the room.

The girl with the grey eyes reached out to take it, as there was a knock on the door.

"Mistress?" Simpered the droid.

The girl had frozen. Jack slowly, carefully, reached out and took the girl's hand into her own.

Jack shot a quick ordering look at the droid.

"What's your name?" Jack asked. The question was echoed in the strange language.

"Raquel," the child replied.

"And how did end up there?"

The girl buried her eyes in her hands. After a few seconds, she looked up. "I was taken. These men in red robes. They... they tested me. For 'The Force' they said. Then they wouldn't let me go home!"

Jack wasn't sure what kind of tests they were talking about. Mental tests? Physical tests? Blood tests? Some kind of weird spatial awareness tests?

She went down the line, asking each one down the line. Each one was a variant: They'd been taken from their home, "tested", and shipped off to be trained.

Only the last one was different, and it scared her more than the rest.

It was a red skinned, black eyed near human; she was the only one that seemed angry, rather than scared. "It was an honor to be selected for force testing! My parents were proud that I was going to train with the Sith Lords!"

The rest of the rescues backed away from her, and the child looked _proud_ of it.

Jack thought she was going to be sick.

* * *

><p>A message from the actual Author:<p>

I enjoy writing, and I hope you enjoy reading what I write.

I also enjoy trying out new fiction ideas, both in story (_What ifs_) and on the meta level. _The Acceleration Multiplier_ was originally going to be a duology, with a counterpart work for a Renegade Shepard. It's grown a bit long for that, I think.

I'm not as good at grammar as I would like to be, I'm working on that.

If you've made it this far, you've made it through over 40K words in this particular work. (A lot of novels are 80K to 100K.) Which leads me to my request: If you spot grammar things to fix, call me out on it. Be specific so I can learn from my mistakes. If there's ideas that you like (or don't like, like my Lemony Narrator), drop me a line and let me know. If you don't want it to do a review, click on the profile page and drop me a private message. I'll get back to you, I promise.

Thank you for reading, both my story, and my ranting.

-John "TheZorker" Burkhart


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